


Infinite Secrets

by cheyla, Silcah



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Vampires
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-21
Updated: 2018-01-21
Packaged: 2019-03-07 18:05:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 24,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13440276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cheyla/pseuds/cheyla, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silcah/pseuds/Silcah
Summary: When Harry ran away from the Dursley's he was trying to leave his past behind. Too bad his past came to him in the process. But some things should remain exactly where they belong...in the past. Takes place after Goblet of Fire.





	1. Prologue

Fear. That was the only thing Harry could feel besides the adrenaline rushing through his body. Those two sensations were the only things that kept him running. Running away from all that caused him misery. His aunt and her family, his friends, Hogwarts, the wizarding world, Voldemort. Everything in his life so far had caused him pain. Nothing good ever lasted as he had learned this past year. Not only had Voldemort come back, eager to kill him, and killed someone that could've been considered a friend, but no one except Dumbledore and a select few people believed him. His friends weren't responding to any of his owls, and when he  _finally_  had someone that could take him away from his relatives…

Harry stopped and shook his head, clearing his thoughts, and looked about the street he was currently on. Nobody was about at this hour, and therefore, not a single person knew or cared where he was or where he was going. Running away may seem like an overreaction, especially with the constantly growing threat to his life but he couldn't take it anymore. It was one thing to be treated like a servant or be forced to skip the occasional meal, but this had been the last straw. Harry's neck was still sore from where his uncle had grabbed it, intent on strangling his nephew. Now, it was clear to Harry. No matter where he went, or what he did, there would always be someone who would want to hurt him, who would want to kill him.

A strangled scream drew Harry's attention. He sighed as he felt that familiar tug that told him that something bad was happening to whoever screamed, and that he should do whatever he could to save that unknown person. It was hard to ignore something that had been instilled in him for three years. He was Harry Potter, the boy who had defeated one of the darkest wizards of all time as a baby, and who was destined to save the wizarding world once again. He had always been the hero to everyone, despite his protests, and now whenever someone was in need of help, he felt he had to help them.

Reluctantly, Harry withdrew his wand, but kept it hidden. He wasn't quite sure what type of person or people he was dealing with. It seemed that no one else in the area had heard the scream. Everyone else was probably asleep or too busy with other things to care.

As quiet as possible, Harry made his way to the area where the scream seemed to come from. As he walked on, the lights began to dim and flicker. Magic was alive in the air.

It was a different kind of magic Harry had never experienced. It was cold and had a slight malevolent aura about it, like a dementor, but at the same time, there was a hint of peace and healing to it, like a phoenix. How could there be such an aura? Good yet evil, powerful yet vulnerable.

A gurgling sound snapped Harry back into the present world.

"Hello?" He called quietly. "Everything okay?"

The gurgling cut off and silence met his ears. Harry turned the corner, now that he was certain where the noises were coming from, only to be slammed into the nearest wall. The bruises already on Harry's throat were only going to get worse, due to the force pressed against his throat. Harry was stunned briefly and couldn't see his attacker's face clearly. He could only feel his attacker's warm breath on his neck, and fangs scraping against his jugular vein.

Startled, Harry pushed the attacker away, in a futile attempt to get a clear view of him. His attacker was clearly a man, a little taller and of a thicker build than himself. Harry couldn't see much else in the dim light but he could see the shape of the body stiffen in surprise.

"Potter." The voice hissed, the surprise also clear.

"Do I know you?" Harry demanded. The man shook his head.

"Not personally. I've been keeping an eye on you though."

Harry was about to ask why, when the man stepped out of the shadow, rendering Harry speechless. There right in front of Harry, was an older version of himself.


	2. Evasions

Harry was stunned. It was as if his father were standing right in front of him. But that wasn't possible. Not in the least. Voldemort had performed the Avada Kedavra, the killing curse, and he had been the only one to survive that attack.

"Who…who  _are_  you?" Harry asked, the question coming out in a whisper.

"Not important at the moment. What is important is who did that to you?" The stranger asked, indicating the bruises in the shape of hands on Harry's neck that had formed after the latest incident concerning the young boy's relatives, if they could even be called that.

"Why do you care? You don't know me." Harry scoffed, recovering some of the bravado he had lost when he had first been slammed into the wall.

"You'll see all in due time, my boy, all in due time. Besides, what if I was one of those people who couldn't stand to see anyone get hurt?" The Harry-copy replied, frowning as he eluded the question. Harry frowned as well, easily picking up on the evasive strategy, but chose to look away from the prodding gaze of the other man. His eyes landed on an indiscernible shape lying in the middle of the alley. It took a moment, but after that moment passed, Harry recognized the shape, which was the reason he was in the alley in the first place. A human body.

"So you can't stand to see anyone hurt but you'll kill an innocent person?" Harry tried to keep his voice light, to avoid showing the man his fear. Yes, he was used to Voldemort and his followers trying to kill him, but they were starting to get predictable with their reliance on magic. However, the man in front of him was an unknown.

The man laughed and glanced back at his victim.

"She'd thank me, a homeless druggie like her. I ended her useless existence and she was finally worth something after she died."

Harry raised an eyebrow at his explanation.

"How can she be worth something after she's dead?" He asked warily. The man shrugged.

"Not really important." He blew off the question with a wave of his hand. "So why aren't you with your relatives?"

Harry stiffened visibly at the question. How did this man know he lived with his relatives, not his parents?

"That's really none of your concern." He said slowly, keeping a careful eye on the stranger. His look-a-like shrugged.

"Actually it kind of is, especially if they've been abusing you." The man replied. "Which it clearly looks like they have been."

Harry grimaced. He hadn't thought the bruises would've been that noticeable already, especially considering it was night.

"It doesn't matter anymore. I'm not going back." The wizarding world's hero said stubbornly, glaring at the stranger, who had started to brush the dust off of his jeans.

"Good." Was the only answer he received. The unfamiliar man began to walk away. In any normal case, Harry would've just let him leave, but for some reason Harry was intrigued. Harry wanted to know why this man looked like an older version of himself when Harry knew he had no living relatives. With a sigh, Harry began to follow the man.

A moment later, the stranger looked back and grinned when he spotted Harry trying to follow him.

"What do you want kid?" He asked nonchalantly.

"You never answered some of my questions and you're unusually relieved that I've left my uncle's house." Harry pointed out. The other male sighed.

"Your mother's relatives are even worse than that girl back there. They've thrived off of seeing you helpless to stop their antics. It's a powerful thing, having control of another person, and they abused that power." He stated.

"I wasn't helpless!" Harry protested. The man sighed and gave him a weary gaze.

"The only thing you could've done is what you're doing now, running away." He murmured quietly. "There are different kinds of strength. You've had to put up with things that most adults haven't, and no one has stepped in to help, even when they had the power to. That's your strength, dealing with things that no one else can. But you were powerless to stop your relatives because there was no one you could turn to."

The words hit close to home for Harry, who winced.

"How do you know all of these things?" He demanded. The Harry-copy said nothing for a moment.

"You really want to know everything?" He asked.

Harry's eyes narrowed and he nodded, sick of having everything kept from him. It would be nice to have some answers for a change.

As if reading his mind, the man sighed and reluctantly began his story, his memories taking him all the way back to the year of 1564.


	3. His Story

"It was the year of 1564 when I was born." The man began carefully, awaiting the expected reaction. Harry's eyes widened as he tried to grasp the idea. That meant this man wasn't a man at all. He was…

"Yes. I'm a vampire." The man confirmed. "Now no questions until after if you want to hear this whole thing. I'll give you the short version right now, but still, even that's kind of long."

Harry nodded and continued to watch the vampire.

"My parent's named me Christopher Marlowe. They were muggles and I was born a wizard. Once they realized it, I was sent away so no one could figure it out and a couple years later attended Hogwarts. Remember, this was still in the time when even the slightest hint of witchcraft or magic got a person burned at the stake. I wasn't exactly fond of my abilities and after Hogwarts I was willing to just forget everything about the magical world. Instead I decided I wanted to be one of the greatest writers of the time. While I was attending the university to get my degree, I got involved with the Privy Council. I guess today you would've called me a spy. My relationship with the Council helped me to some extent, getting my work noticed by the Queen and her court, along with getting my degree on time, but with that came a lot of attention and I was noticed by  _others_  as well."

It wasn't said aloud but Harry instinctively knew who the  _others_  were. Vampires. Christopher gave a slight shrug as he continued.

"They pushed me and helped me to publish my works, which at the time were seen as controversial and even heretical. At first I was thrilled, but that was before I realized what they were. I still feel like an idiot for that. A wizard not knowing a vampire right in front of them…Ridiculous."

The vampire's eyes darkened.

"Even so, I continued to work with them. The wizards on the Privy Council found out about it and had me arrested one night on some trumped up charge. A few hours before they did, I was attacked by a vampire and forced to feed from it. I'm not quite sure who it was but it wasn't any of the ones I met before. They had to hightail it out of England a few months earlier because people were becoming suspicious. A few days later, before the blood was fully out of my system, I was assassinated by the Council."

Christopher gave a wry smile.

"I was buried and then a few nights later the vampire blood took over. Apparently that's all it takes. A drink of vampire blood and being killed. After I had gotten myself out of the grave, there was no one to tell me what to do, so I went with my instincts and went home to Bridgette and Henry."

Harry raised an eyebrow at the unfamiliar names and Christopher backtracked.

"I fell in love and married while I was going to school. Her name was Bridgette Potter, a fellow witch. We hated each other at first with our different opinions about magic but that changed after awhile. Soon enough she was my entire world."

Harry noticed the misty eyed look and fought the urge to roll his eyes. Love was disgusting at times.

"Henry was our little boy. He was six when I was changed and had no clue about magic. We figured it would be easier if he was unaware if anyone became curious about Bridgette's practices as a healer. As I was saying, after I was changed, I went back to them. Bridgette instantly knew what I had become as soon as I had shown up on the doorstep but couldn't bring herself to drive me away. Over the next year, I stayed with them, with the hope that we could still be a normal family."

Christopher grimaced.

"Obviously that can't happen. We were careful about blood and injuries but you can't prevent everything. Henry fell and scraped his hands. I was still young enough that the blood set me off immediately. I was barely able to stop myself, but not after I attacked both him and Bridgette. It was then I realized that the predator can never live with the prey and that they would age, while I would not. A couple days later, I begged Bridgette to let me turn her, but she refused. I left that night and never went back. Feeling guilty about abandoning them, I dedicated myself to watching over my descendants and making sure the Potter line continued."

"Not the Marlowe?" Harry couldn't help the question from slipping out of his mouth. Christopher sighed.

"Bridgette and I decided it was best if our children carried her name. Back then, muggle-borns were teased ruthlessly and so were their children."

Both Harry and Christopher grimaced at the thought. Things hadn't changed too much. Christopher sighed and tilted his head, looking thoughtfully at the sky. He grimaced as he spotted the tints of gray within it. Dawn was approaching.

"So that's the short version." He admitted. "Now we should get going."

Harry followed his ancestor's gaze to the sky.

"So are the myths true then?" He asked. A snort was his reply.

"Hardly." Christopher said dryly. "I just would prefer to keep some of my dignity and not be laughed at by the others."

"Others?" Harry was instantly wary. Christopher might have been his ancestor but Harry didn't want to become his friends' next meal.

"My coven." Christopher replied absently. "They won't eat you so relax." He picked up Harry's trunk like it weighed nothing. "Now let's go."

"Where?" Christopher rolled his eyes and held out his free arm.

"Home. Now grab my arm."

Harry took the offered arm and yelped in surprise as he found himself lifted off the ground. There was a sucking sensation and Harry began to feel like he was being split in every different direction. He groaned as some invisible force pressed on his head. He was definitely going to have a headache after this.

Almost as soon as it began, it was over. Once Harry felt stable enough, he turned away from Kit, heaving. It was probably a good thing he hadn't eaten in awhile; otherwise all of it would've been vomited up.

Christopher frowned as he did so.

"When was the last time you ate?" He inquired lightly, trying not to betray his true feelings. Harry shrugged.

"I had a light supper last night." He replied, feeling a lie would be detected immediately. He didn't know a lot about vampires, but he did know they had heightened senses. His ancestor adopted a dark expression that Harry automatically became wary of.

"It's really not that big of a deal." He cautioned. "They've done worse than not feed me for a couple days."

"Like lock you in a cupboard under the stairs? Or try to strangle you? Or how about not giving you the proper clothes and things you need?" The vampire gestured to the bruises surrounding Harry's throat and his baggy hand-me-downs from Dudley. Harry narrowed his eyes.

"How do you know about the cupboard and all of that ?" He demanded but received no reply. Harry rolled his eyes at the suddenly moody vampire and took the chance to examine his surroundings. It was a simple estate, with a large sprawling lawn and a small pond. On the other side of the pond was a daunting looking forest. Harry grimaced at the sight of the mansion. It screamed of money, with the large windows and elegant doors. He was willing to bet the inside had marble floors, useless expensive paintings, and uncomfortable furniture.

"Where are we?" He asked. "And did you just apparate us?"

"Yes." Christopher murmured and smirked when Harry realized that his first question hadn't been answered.

"We're at the Xuanji estate in Switzerland. Welcome home, kid."

"Xuanji?" Harry rolled the unfamiliar name on his tongue and recognized it as Chinese. "Chris, when did our last name become Xuanji and why are we in Switzerland of all places?"

The vampire stiffened at the name but smirked at the questions.

"Kit." He corrected as he opened the doors to the mansion's main entrance. Harry gave him a blank look. "I prefer to be called Kit instead of Christopher or Chris. We're in Switzerland because it's pretty and private."

Harry rolled his eyes at the reasoning.

"And our last name isn't Xuanji. It's hers." As soon as Kit uttered the comment, Harry's attention was caught by the young woman coming down the stairs.


	4. Mansion in Switzerland

Harry was stunned by the woman. Her long raven-black hair was shining in the moonlight. The woman descended the stairs with grace and dignity. She was as impassive as she was elegant. Her face betrayed nothing of what she was feeling and Harry found that disconcerting. The boy looked from Kit to the woman who had just joined them. The trio stood in silence for a few minutes. It was as if Kit was having a conversation with the lady, although Harry didn't know how.

"Harry Potter, this is Yu Xuanji. She is the owner of this estate and the leader of my coven. She is an ancient poet from China. Please, show her some respect." Kit introduced rather formally. Harry began to bow before the poet before him spoke,

"There is no need to bow, young one. We are all friends here. I am glad to meet one of our Kit's descendants. You are welcome here, on my estate, anytime. Please, join us in the dining hall. You can meet some other members of the coven and have some diner; I'm sure you are hungry." Her voice was like tiny bells jingling in the air. Harry was captivated and Kit had to elbow him rudely to get him moving again. The young wizard blinked and saw that Yu Xuanji was already half-way up the stairs.

"Woah, she is fast." he murmured under his breath. Kit just chuckled and led him up the white marble stairs.

They pair walked into the old fashioned mansion behind Yu Xuanji. The doorway opened up into a magnificent greeting hall. More marble stairs were in front of them, leading up to what Harry assumed would be the bedrooms. The floor was black marble with white flecks to accent the inky darkness. A hallway led back farther into the mansion, fading into darkness as no lights lit the hallway. Two rooms were on each side of the trio. One looked like room one would see hundreds of people dancing in and the other like dining room. Yu started towards the second room. As they neared the doorway voices floated out of the room. Suddenly, Harry didn't want to enter the room. If what Kit had said was true, then the room was full of vampires. He wasn't sure he was ready to meet them all yet; after all, he was still trying to wrap his mind around the fact that the fabled creatures actually existed.

"U-um, do you think I could just go and rest before meeting…whomever you want me to meet? I did run a long way and I am…uh…tired." Harry stumbled, hoping to put off meeting the other vampires for a while yet.

"Of course, wouldn't want you to be so tired that you wouldn't remember any names, now would we? Kit, please escort young Harry to a room. I believe that the Gold Room is set for guests." Xuanji said kindly, looking sharply at Kit, not unkindly but definitely reprimanding. Harry wondered why Kit would get that look. Had he done something wrong? The young wizard didn't want to think about it at the moment, however. He had some things to figure out.

Kit nodded to Yu and motioned for Harry to follow him as he started up the long set of stairs that was in front of them. Harry was briefly reminded of Hogwarts before he realized that his relative was now at the top of the stairs looking down at him. Shaking his head, the young wizard jogged up the stairs to meet Kit. It was going to take him a while to get used to the speed of the vampires and probably time to discover the other abilities that the vampires undoubtedly had.

Harry began following Kit down the hallway towards where what Harry assumed was going to be his bedroom was. They passed door after door and Harry was about to ask if they were almost to the bedroom when Kit suddenly stopped and opened a door.

Said door led to a dark room but, as the light was flipped on, Harry was awash in golden light. While everything wasn't gold, mostly everything at least had a golden trim. Now he knew what 'Gold Room' meant. The light was reflecting off of the different golden pieces, giving the room a sort of heavenly glow.

"Well, here you are. Take all the time you need to. We aren't going anywhere." Kit said, interrupting the boy's thoughts abruptly.

Harry simply nodded to the vampire as Kit slipped out of the room and back down the hallway. Letting out a breath, Harry went to sit on the giant, four-poster bed. The bed had a black comforter with golden embroidery. The sheets were a simple white silk. As Harry fell onto the bed, he sighed. He had never felt a more comfortable bed. He could get used to this if he were to live there.

Twenty minutes passed in silence. This was something new for the wizard as he was always surrounded by noise whether it was his cousin Dudley was whining about one thing or another or his uncle Vernon was yelling at Harry for something else. This silence was heaven to the boy who was used to noise 24/7.

Suddenly, there was a quiet knock at the door and Harry sat bolt upright in the bed and cast a wary glance at the door. A minute passed and there was another knock. Cautiously, the boy walked to the door and cracked the door. Outside stood a short, dark-skinned girl with sweet looking, dark brown eyes. Her hair was braided in loops and she smiled brightly up at Harry.

"Hello."

"Uh…Hi…who are you?" Harry asked with a guarded demeanor.

"I'm Kaiulani. It's nice to meet you, Harry." Kaiulani said, still smiling as she registered Harry's surprise at her knowing his name. Honestly, she didn't look surprised. Knowing that she probably expected it, the wizard couldn't help the next question that escaped his lips.

"How do you know my name?" He asked and the grin on Kaiulani's face grew.

"We all know who you are. You are the last remaining member of Kit's family. We all try to be his family but his transition to our life has been hard. So, it's great to see him smiling again. He hasn't truly smiled since he failed to protect your parents. Welcome to our home." Kaiulani replied sweetly as she curtsied.

Harry smiled a little at that thought. All the peop—vampires—here seemed to really care for each other. So not all the theories and stories of soulless, blood-sucking vampires, were true. That was a relief, at least. He was also glad that he seemed to be so welcome. Living with a group of aggressive vampires probably wouldn't have been a good idea.

"Well…thank you, Miss Kaiulani. I hope I won't be in the way or anything." Harry replied. He didn't really know what else to say to the woman standing outside his door.

"Just call me Kaiulani or Kai and you will not be in the way," Kaiulani said, "I'll leave you to get settled. Have a good day, Harry."

"Thank you, Kaiulani. I appreciate it." Harry replied, nodding his head in thanks. Kai turned and seemed to float down the hallway and melt into the darkness. Sighing, Harry shut his door and traipsed back to the bed he had been given. Kai had seemed nice, despite her being a vampire. She had the same timeless feel about her that Kit had, but she was more open then Harry's ancestor. Maybe she was younger than Kit. That was a viable option.

Everything seemed quiet now. Nothing seemed to be moving. Suddenly, a yawn came out of nowhere and Harry felt his limbs grow heavy with sleep. About to get ready for bed, Harry came to the realization that his trunk was still downstairs.

Harry sighed and rummaged for his wand. He would summon his trunk from downstairs, not wanting to actually go down and get it. Before he could use the necessary spell, another knock on his door interrupted him.

Grumbling, the boy got up and stomped to the door. Opening it, he was about to snap at the visitor when he realized it was Yu Xuanji outside, he bit the side of his cheek to stop a rude comment from escaping.

Yu was carrying a silver tray with food on it. As if on cue, Harry's stomach let out a mighty roar. It had been a few days since he had eaten anything decent. The Dursley's never fed him enough. The only place he was ever actually full was at Hogwarts. He also felt safe there. If someone attacked him, he could simply whip out his wand to defend himself. There he could be open about what he was: a wizard.

"I thought you might be hungry. There is apple cider, steak and mashed potatoes. Just come downstairs if you need anything else. Anyway, I will be seeing you tonight. Sleep well. Oh, and the curtains are lined so that the sun doesn't shine through them. Enjoy your sleep." Yu said, interrupting his thoughts.

Blindly he held out his arms and the woman deposited the tray on his arms before nodding her head and whisking herself down the hallway in an instant. Shaking his head, Harry entered back into the room and kicked the door shut with his foot. There was a resounding  _'smack'_  and the boy winced, hoping he hadn't woken anyone up. He set the tray lightly down on a round, mahogany table and pulled up one of the chairs lying placed around the room. As he sat, his mouth began watering as he anticipated the delicious tastes about to assault his taste buds.

The metal top came off in a quick movement and Harry was cutting the steak. He chewed as he cut his steak into more and more pieces. The young wizard knew that he shouldn't eat so fast but he couldn't slow himself; only when half the steak was in his stomach, did he slow his pace.

He tried the mashed potatoes next. By that time Harry's mouth was getting dry so he took a sip of the cider. The taste was tangy with a hint of cinnamon. Ten minutes later, his plate was clean and the boy who lived was sitting back in his chair, contentedly full, for once. His next line of business was to get his trunk.

With that in mind, Harry stacked the plate and everything back on the metal tray and put it near the door while he opened the balcony door and raised his wand. Harry cleared his mind and pictured his packed trunk. He really hoped it wouldn't cause any damage coming up the stairs.

" _Accio Trunk!_ " Harry said calmly and clearly. He waited a minute and was about to try again when a whistling sound came from outside his door and there was his trunk…aiming straight for him. Harry dove out of the way in time to hear his trunk thump onto the floor. Now he could go to sleep in comfort and safety.

The wizard opened his trunk and pulled out some pajamas. They were ragged PJs but they would see him through the night. Besides, the blankets looked warm enough to keep him warm through another ice age.

With that thought, Harry climbed into bed with his old PJs on and curled up under the covers. For once, he didn't have any problems falling asleep because, somehow, he knew that he would wake up to an evil uncle waiting to strangle him until he was dead. Yes. He was safe now. Or was he?


	5. Discussions During the Day

Yu was well aware when Harry fell asleep. From down the hall, she could hear his breathing change, becoming more deep and even. Satisfied, she slipped to the other side of the mansion and flung open Kit's door. He was in the midst of changing for the day's sleep and yelped in surprise.

"And now what do you plan to do?" She asked calmly. "They will know that he left his home among his relatives soon enough. Then the entire wizarding world will be hunting for him. I do not want this coven to be ripped apart and hunted because of a rash action." She pointed out.

Kit rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly and his cheeks pinked.

"I honestly didn't think it all the way through." He admitted. The Chinese poet resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Of course he didn't. "He just looked so helpless and reminded me so much of Bridgette."

Yu didn't reply.

"What will happen at the end of summer?" She questioned. "Will he go back to his school? Or will he remain here? I am sure the others will be willing to teach them but we cannot teach him much about magic and its theories. I do remember hearing a quote somewhere that stated that vampires are only good for history lessons."

Kit snorted at Yu's comment and the way she was speaking so properly. It was a sign that he had thrown her off balance by bringing Harry home. Yu didn't like surprises, plainly speaking. Especially when those surprises involved people showing up on her front doorstep.

"Let's let him decide." He responded. "It is his life after all. I think he deserves some say in his life for once."

Yu pursed her lips but nodded.

"You can deal with the wizards if they find him. I will not be blamed for another's actions." She informed the male vampire before leaving the room. "Put on some clothes."

Kit blushed and rapidly shut the door behind Yu, muttering under his breath.

When Harry awoke it was pitch dark. He blindly fumbled around for a light but couldn't find one within his reach. There was no lamp on the table beside his bed. The only thing on it were Harry's glasses. Harry reluctantly threw off his warm covers and stepped onto the floor, shivering as the cool air attacked his skin. His pajamas weren't really made to be warm. They were just meant to be slept in. For some reason he was expecting the floor to be cold and tiled, but found it to be carpeted instead.

After stubbing his toe on the corner of the bed and tripping over a chair, Harry reached a large window. He threw open the drapes and blinked in surprise. It was night. There was no sunlight, only a small amount of moonlight. He had slept through the entire day.

With the help from the faint moonlight, Harry found the light switch. He flipped the lights on and swore under his breath as the sudden amount of light seared his eyes. He jumped as the door slammed open, barely missing him.

"Good night!" Kit cheered. Kai was behind him, supressing giggles. "The moon has risen and we know what that means!"

Harry raised an eyebrow. "We do?" He asked warily.

Kit and Kai nodded.

"It's get-to-know-the-family night." Kai smiled brightly at Harry and winked as Kit began to pull his relative out the bedroom door. As Harry passed by Kaiulani she leaned and hissed into his ear,

"The drinks are spiked."

Harry paled, suddenly understanding Kit's enthusiastic actions.

Drunk vampires. How fun.


	6. The Party

Harry followed Kit and Kai uncertainly. The vampires he had already met seemed to be relatively normal, in a manner of speaking. But with the drinks spiked and a party atmosphere, the young wizard wasn't entirely sure what to expect.

The trio neared a set of large oak doors as they descended the marble steps to the main floor of the mansion. Harry recognized where he was now. This was where they had entered the night before. The room that had had voices emanating from it was now silent and the voices were now coming from the room Harry had compared to a ballroom. He assumed this was where the 'little' get together was going to be.

Kit opened one of the doors and Kaiulani skipped into the room. Harry's ancestor motioned for him to enter and the boy took a deep breath before entering the large room.

Music was quietly playing from strategically placed speakers and there were many people, or vampires. Harry hadn't thought that there had been this many people last night, but maybe some of them had gone out and hadn't been home. Or maybe the extra people were guests, or snacks. The last thought made Harry shiver despite the brilliant fire crackling happily in the hearth.

Kit came up behind Harry and gave him a slight nudge. So far, no one had really noticed the trio enter the room, but Kaiulani had disappeared into the crowd. Harry spotted Yu talking with another man across the room. As if she had read his mind, the Chinese poetess looked at him and gave him a brilliant smile. Harry smiled back weakly as Yu started making her way towards them. The man she had been talking with began to follow her towards them. He looked to be middle-aged; but, as they neared Kit and Harry, the wizard sensed the same powerful aura that surrounded Yu. It made them seem ageless. That meant the other man was also a vampire.

Yu and the man reached Harry and Kit in a manner of moments, obviously using their abilities to weave and push through the crowd. In a horde of just humans this big, it would have taken a lot longer to get through the crowd. Kit bowed his head to both other vampires and Harry gave a weak smile, still not sure what the proper 'manners' were for being amongst a group of blood-sucking immortals.

"Hello, Harry. How did you sleep?" The musical voice of the poetess asked over the light playing of music. She was dressed in a long garment that looked like a Chinese dress. It was made of red silk and embroidered with yellow dragons. The edges were sewn up with a shiny yellow thread. Her black hair was done up in a tight bun and ornamented with ruby red chopsticks. The man at her side was dressed in a simple black suit with a light blue tie that matched his flashing eyes. His brown hair was slightly grayed and slicked back. The man had a strong jaw-line and a well-defined nose. He had a subtle smile and a tall elegance. He inclined his head towards Harry and extended his hand to Kit for a short shake before looking back at Harry, expecting him to answer his leader's question.

"Uh—I slept fine, thank you." Harry answered with a slight stammer. The boy had been staring at the man with the blue eyes as if entranced when Yu had asked her question. He had had to shake his head slightly to clear it. Xuanji smiled knowingly as she glanced between the boy and the new vampire. Kit chuckled as Yu smiled and Harry became confused.

Yu threw out her arms in a welcoming gesture.

"Welcome then! Most of the vampires here are a part of my coven. We are one big family. Most everyone here is a brother or a sister, a parent or a child, a grandparent or a grandchild. Not many of us live here but every once in a while we gather together with some of our chosen human, or vampire, companions." She described to Harry, eyes lighting up as she did so.

"Harry, this is Dmitry Ivanovich Donskoy. He once was a Russian prince. Funny thing about him: since he became a vampire, his eyes have had this mysterious power of…shall we say, enrapturing others. Some of us older vampires also have similar powers. I am able to influence the emotions of mortals, but only the shallow ones such as anger and calm. The deeper ones such as love and hate are not to be trifled with. The older a vampire is, the more prominent our aura becomes. It awes mortals and lets us influence them to a certain extent but we have to be close by to do so. We all know the power we hold over mortals." Yu gave a slight smirk and turned to Dmitry. "You know who this is. Now, play nice, Dmitry." Yu chastised with a smile and swept away to comingle with the rest of the coven and guests.

The wizard stared after the woman as she met up with Kai who then giggled and waved a Harry.

_'Glad to see that I am such a popular topic of discussion and teasing.'_  Harry though sarcastically before he realized something was sticking out in front of his body. It was Donskoy's hand that was extended for a handshake. Harry took the proffered hand and shook it with a firm grip.

"It's nice to meet Kit's kin." Dmitry had a thick Russian accent and a smooth, deep voice. Now that Harry thought about it, none of the other vamps he had talked to previously seemed to have an accent. He briefly wondered why that was and decided to make a note and ask Kit about it at a later time, say, when he  _wasn't_  surrounded by superhuman creatures with extra keen hearing.

Despite the wariness that Harry felt as he still tried to get used to the thought of vampires, he smiled at the Russian vampire. As long as Kit and Yu were there, he didn't think he would be attacked. But if Kit was to be believed that the others wouldn't attack him, Harry thought he would be fine.

"It's nice to meet you too, Mr. Donskoy-

"Just Dmitry. I wish Yu wouldn't introduce me with my full name, but she has a thing about remembering who we were when…well, when we were still human. Unfortunately, most of us don't like to be reminded. It reminds us of a time long gone by now." Dmitry said, interrupting Harry and explaining something the boy had been wondering about. He had just remembered how Kit had corrected him when Harry had called him 'Chris'. Dmitry's explanation answered Harry's question about why Kit didn't want to be called by his birth name. It made sense. Being born and living in a different time period and watching everything you knew and loved die or end, he could imagine, would be tough.

"Well, it's nice to meet you too, Dmitry," Harry corrected himself. He had been about to shut himself up when his question about the accent popped out, "why do you have such a strong accent and no one else I've met seems to have one?" Harry covered his mouth in embarrassment. He hoped he hadn't offended anyone. But the party continued around him as if nothing had happened and a wide grin had even appeared on both Kit and Dmitry's face.

"That's an easy question to answer, but first let me ask you this: who have you met so far?" Dmitry replied, laughter in his eyes.

"Well, I've met Kaiulani, Yu, Kit, and you." Harry replied with uncertainty. Why did he all of a sudden have the feeling that he had asked a stupid question and not an offending one? As if to accentuate his feeling, Dmitry laughed outright and patted Kit on the back even as Harry's ancestor tried to keep a straight face. Irritation darted into Harry's eyes at this scene. How was he supposed to know vampire etiquette and why they had accents or not? Dmitry finally was able to reign in his laughter and answer Harry's impromptu question.

"The simple answer is that I don't actually live on the coven's estate. I may be a part of it, but I spend most of my time in my homeland of Russia. I still have my accent because of that. Kai, Kit, Yu, and some of the others who actually live here on the coven's estate have adapted to the area to blend in more. It's all about survival and how much you want to stand out." Dmitry answered with a surprisingly straight face after his fit of laughter.

"Alright. So, why are you here now?" Harry said, fighting an urge to scratch his head in curiosity.

"I'm here because of you. Yu, being our maker and/or coven leader, had most of the coven teleport or apparate here to meet you. Everyone here knows about you and your exploits. You're actually quite popular amongst everyone here. Some even gamble on what you'll do next and how you will accomplish it." The Russian answered patiently, a weird glint popping up in his eye at the mention of the gambling. Harry just stared. They had been gambling on him? What a joke! But then he had another question.

"You said teleport or apparate here. Aren't they the same thing?"

"You haven't taught him anything about us have you?" Dmitry sighed and looked at Kit. The other vampire shrugged as if to say 'Hey, we've been busy and just got here.' The Russian vampire merely shook his head and turned back to Harry, "it isn't the same. All vampires can teleport. Apparation uses magic to transfer the body to and from places and it's so uncomfortable because it isn't natural to the human body. Teleportation is a natural ability of vampires so it's not painful or uncomfortable and it isn't technically magic. To answer the question in your eyes: Kit was not able to teleport you two here because you are not a vampire. Therefore apparition was the only solution since he was a wizard in the past and could apparate you both."

"I see." Harry said, pondering this latest information. The boy was unnerved by the way everyone he had met thus far seemed to know what he was thinking. They answered some of his questions before he even asked them. Mind spinning Harry said, "um…excuse me, I think I'm going to go get some air." Harry turned abruptly on his heels and walked back out through the large oak door where he, Kit, and Kai had entered. Before he knew where he was going, Harry's feet had taken him out the front doors and down onto the lawn. Turning to his right, Harry began to walk around the large main building of the Xuanji estate.

The grounds were beautiful from what Harry could see of them. It took Harry a minute to remember that he was a wizard and able to use a wand. Reaching to his wand that was normally stored in his back pocket, Harry pulled it out and whispered 'lumos' and the tip of his wand lit up. Light spread out in a small bubble around him and he got a pretty good look at the area around him

Harry was walking between the main building and a shrubbery that seemed to act like a barrier, although it didn't seem like it could do much against any sort of attack. The grass was nicely trimmed and Harry could see the sparling of water in the moonlight. It was the pond that he had seen when he first had been apparated here. As he continued walking he saw the looming forest that he had seen earlier as well. It was just as daunting as it had been the night before and Harry decided to avoid it, remembering trips into the forest behind Hagrid's house. Shivers ran down Harry's body as he stopped to admire the lake. As he watched the moonlight dance over the ripples of water in the light, night breezes, a twig snapped behind him.

The boy wizard whipped around with his wand raised. Maybe coming outside hadn't been such a good idea. Now he was alone and could be eaten by a hungry vampire if said vampire had it in his or her fancy.

A dark shadow moved towards him, moving faster than any human possibly could. So it  _was_  a vampire then. But it couldn't be from Yu's coven because Kit said Harry had nothing to worry about. But what if one wanted Harry's blood anyway? Before he even had time to throw a spell at the vampire, the wizard was bowled over and pinned.

Glowing-green eyes glared down at him and fangs were bared. Harry's eyes were now adjusted to the darkness and he made out very feminine features on the vampire. This female looked to be 16, 18 at the best. How could she be so young? How could she be so young and yet be so ferocious and dangerous looking? It was then Harry remembered they weren't usually as young as they looked.

The boy tried to wrestle the vampire off of him but her strength held him pinned down. Harry struggled and struggled before the girl finally spoke. When she did it was a sort of hiss but a whisper.

"Why does he want  _you_  so bad? You're nothing but a weak  _human_." She spat the word 'human' like it left a bad taste in her mouth. This must be one of the vampires that were most definitely NOT in the Xuanji coven. How perfect. He escaped torture only to be enveloped in a war between vampires of all things. His life was just a walking display of ironic events.

The vampires hand went up into the air and curled into a sort of claw like position. This left Harry's right hand, his wand hand, free to do as it please. He raised his arm and yelled,

"STUPEFY!"

The vampire flew backwards off of him but still landed on her feet. He couldn't believe what was happening to him. Why him? All he wanted to do was live a peaceful life. Since he couldn't do that because of Voldemort, didn't he at least deserve some sort of vacation? But no; leaving the Dursely's had been a good plan to begin with, but getting mixed up in a vampire war? Bad idea.

The vampire came at him and dodged his next few spells and tackled him, sending both of them rolling toward the small pond. A few pebbles rolled into the water as they stopped rolling perilously close to the bank of the pond.

"You'll wish you hadn't done that,  _Boy_." The vampire hissed again before slowing lowering her head to his neck. She gently kissed his neck and licked her tongue up his jugular. It was then that Harry closed his eyes and began praying to someone, everyone, and no one in particular. The vampire had backed away from his neck slightly as if in preparation of the meal. She reared up and started aiming for his neck when her weight was lifted.

Harry dared to open his eyes. What he saw astounded him. There was Kaiulani holding the other female vampire up in the air by her neck. Kai's brown eyes were glowing in anger as Yu, Dmitry, Kit and a few others showed up. The strange vampire was thrashing her loose limbs in the air and clawing at Kai's hand as she tried to get free.

Yu's eyes were glowing as were all the other vampires' eyes in the vicinity. Maybe the threat of a fight brought the eyes to glow as they did. Maybe he would ask later since he didn't really have time now. Kai handed the vampire to Yu and was at Harry's side in a moment, griping his neck ever so gently with the same hand that had held the attacking vamp in such a deathly grip only seconds before.

Harry stood as Yu glared at the offending vampire. The wizard couldn't help feel a slice of contempt run through him as the once terrifying vampire who had attacked him was now cowering in fear and not even trying to escape. She knew that power that Xuanji held and she didn't stand a chance surrounded by so many others of her kind.

"Why are you here?" Yu asked, her voice no longer carrying the sound of bells. It was hard and angry.

"H-he sent me to w-watch the boy. Y-your maker. G-Guy s-sent me." The vampire stuttered out. Whether it was fear or not being able to breath the human did not know. One thing that Harry  _did_  notice was that Yu Xuanji had frozen, her eyes wide with many different emotions playing across her face and through her eyes: hatred, fear, anger, hurt. Who could make Yu, a powerful and ageless vampire, almost cower in fear? Who was this Guy?


	7. Choices

Guy. Yu's maker. Apparently he wanted something to do with Harry but Harry had no clue what it was. He had never even heard of the vampire before. Carefully, Harry watched Yu and the others, suddenly feeling in his gut that his vampire coven wasn't in as much control as they seemed to be.

After a moment, Yu's face twisted in pure anger and she gave a harsh, thin-lipped smile. Her back straightened into a stiff posture.

"Guy." She mused. "Haven't heard that name in a while." She shrugged and pulled out the chopsticks holding her hair up. The raven black hair fell down and over her soldiers loosely, curling slightly at the tips. Now that her hair was down, Yu had a wild look that was perfectly centered on her glowing eyes.

In an almost absent-minded manner, Yu played with the ruby chopstick. Harry would have guessed that it was absent-minded if it had not been for the deliberate look in her eyes. The sinking feeling in Harry's stomach began to grow and it only increased as Yu's smile widened to show her teeth.

Yu tossed her hair back and closed her eyes. When they opened again, the glow had faded.

"It is such a pity that this party was ruined in such a way." She began and her eyes flickered to Harry. "I'm sorry for this having happened Harry."

Harry slightly tensed up as the group focused on him for a minute but then Yu continued.

"Unfortunately, I cannot ignore such a breach of protocol. No guest of mine should ever be attacked. We know what the response is for such a situation." Kai and Kit tensed up at Yu's words. Dmitry's body didn't tense or stiffen but his face became a touch more impassive.

"Is this really necessary?" Kit interjected. Yu responded with a cool look in his direction. Kit grimaced and offered Harry a hand. Once Harry took the hand, Kit pulled Harry into a standing position. Dmitry pulled the rogue vampire's arms behind her back and Kai let go almost eagerly.

Kai and Kit moved to stand on either side of Harry and began to urge Harry to move away from the group and back to the mansion. There were a few vampires that were still hanging around the edges of the mansion but it seemed to Harry that most of the guests had left or were hanging around out of sight.

"Don't look back." Kit whispered in Harry's ear, barely able to be heard. Harry obeyed, not wanting to see what he suspected was going to happen. He stumbled a bit as a scream pierced the air but once he regained his balance, he resumed walking, albeit a little bit quicker.

Kit showed Harry back to his room. Once inside, the green-eyed teenager locked his door and shut the curtains. Blindly, Harry felt his way to his bed and curled up on top of the sheets, shivering.

Harry wasn't quite sure how he managed to fall asleep but nightmares plagued his sleep. They always did. It was always the same nightmare as well. His subconscious would replay the night of the graveyard every single night. Cedric's body hung in the background, frozen in death. Only this night was slightly different. Next to Cedric hung the face of the vampire that had attacked Harry. Her face held the frightened look that Harry had last seen on her. A scream pierced Harry's dream and the fifteen-year-old boy bolted upright, sweat coating his body.

The tapping on the window had Harry nearly jumping out of his skin. He sighed in relief when he opened the curtains and saw that it was only an owl but the official looking letter in its talons made Harry reluctant to open the window for the owl to enter.

Hands shaking, the letter was slowly opened. As Harry read on, his stomach sank.

_Dear Mr. Potter,_

_Earlier today we received intelligence that you used a stupefying spell along with others. Due to previous warnings issued to you about the usage of underage magic, I must inform you that you have been expelled from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. A ministry official will be by to remove you of your wand._

_Hoping you are well,_

_Mafalda Hopkirk_

Underage magic. Expelled from Hogwarts. Remove you of your wand. Harry collapsed back onto his bed, unable to believe his eyes. Leaning back, he pulled a pillow over his head and groaned, loudly. Surprisingly Harry wasn't as dismayed by his expulsion as he thought he would be. Hogwarts was his home, where all his friends were. Hogwarts held memories.

But at the same time, Harry didn't want to go back there. He didn't want to constantly be remembering the Triwizard Tournament or Cedric. His death was still too fresh for Harry. It would be torture, having to go back and walk those corridors that Cedric walked and to see Cho again, knowing that she would still be heart-broken over Cedric.

"There's an owl in your room." A cool voice stated. Harry bolted up and stared wide-eyed at Yu who had silently entered the room. He eyed her warily and she gave him a regretful smile.

"I apologize for last night." She bowed apologetically to Harry, who remained silent. "My emotions took over and you were present for something you need not have been present for. I also apologize for the fact that you were attacked. That should not have happened."

Harry swallowed, unsure of what to say.

"Err…its no trouble. You couldn't have done anything about it really." He began to wave off the apology and Yu gave a small frown that quickly disappeared. She looked like she was about to respond but the letter on Harry's desk drew her attention. She reached for it and Harry didn't bother to protest.

The Chinese poetess reviewed the letter and her eyebrow quirked.

"Expelled hm?" She asked, setting the parchment aside once she was done reading it. "What happens next?"

Harry eyed her curiously.

"What do you mean?" He inquired. Yu smirked.

"No ministry official will be able to find this estate, let alone have enough courage to walk into a coven's home for the sole purpose of snapping a wand." She stated confidently. "So it's up to you to decide whether or not you'll demand a hearing at the ministry, or if you'll just accept this expulsion and stay here. You can go back to school and get a normal magical education or you can stay and receive an education from the coven."

Harry's head spun. There were so many options, so many different paths he could follow. The teenage boy was used to having something expected of him and not having many choices dealing with his personal life.

"Umm…."He had no idea what to say. He had no idea what to choose.

"You don't have to choose now." Yu interjected quietly. "Just be aware that you can choose." With that, she left the room.

Harry stared after her for a long while, wondering about what had just happened. Then, with a long sigh, he fell back on the bed and covered his head with a pillow.


	8. While They Were Sleeping

Harry tossed restlessly in his bed. After Yu had left, he had been unable to fall asleep again for two reasons. One, he had too much on his mind and his mind was racing. For once in his life, he finally had a decision that he could make on his own and he didn't know which path to take. The second reason Harry couldn't sleep was more ridiculous in his opinion.

It was the middle of the day.

Apparently that myth was true. Vampires did sleep during the day. Harry, a human, was used to sleeping at night and being active while the sun was up. It would take some time before he would get used to the new schedule if he wanted to remain with the coven.

Harry knew he shouldn't just blindly accept Kit's story and hang around with a coven of vampires that had already proved to be ruthless. It would be scandalous to the Wizarding Community. The Boy-Who-Lived-Among-Vampires would be his new title if the Daily Prophet found out.

Still, it was nice to be among people who didn't gape at his scar and admire him just because he was the boy that defeated Voldemort more than once. Sure, he knew at the party that the coven was talking about him, but he felt that it was more due to the fact that he was human and Kit's ancestor. He had a feeling that they could somehow care less about the famous part.

This was one of the times that Harry wished he had Hermione by his side. He knew that she would be looking up all sorts of information about the vampires in the coven, before and after they were turned. He could be walking among legends and not even know it.

Harry rolled over once again, kicking off the covers as he did so. He couldn't take it anymore. He had to find something to do since it was obvious that he wasn't going to be able to go back to sleep.

Trying to be quiet, Harry got dressed and slowly opened the door, which creaked. He winced. In the silent mansion, the creak seemed to be magnified to near-deafening proportions. Gritting his teeth, he slipped out of his room and into the hallway. Every door he passed was closed and Harry reigned in his instinctive curiosity. It would be awkward if he poked around and walked in on a sleeping vampire.

Living with vampires put Harry's education into a new perspective for him. He really didn't know anything about vampires, besides the occasional lesson he had received and the myths. The myth about superhuman strength and speed was true, as Harry had learned last night, as well as the myth about vampires sleeping during the day. According to Kit, they could go out in sunlight but they avoided doing so for reasons unknown. To create a vampire, a person had to die with vampire blood in their body. Vampires could teleport. Oh, and they drank blood.

And that summed up what Harry knew about vampires. It was embarrassing how little he knew. It made him seem ignorant. Wizards were as ignorant about vampires as they were about muggles.

At the foot of the stairs, where Harry had first laid eyes on Yu, Harry found himself unsure of where to go. He could go outside but he didn't want to risk another attack. He doubted that this time he would be lucky enough to have someone save him just as he was about to die. After facing Voldemort countless times and surviving each encounter, he figured that his good luck had to run out eventually.

So exploring the grounds was out. Harry looked around him, noticing that there were two wings that were connected to the entrance hall, where the party had been held the night before. Like the second floor, most of the doors in either wing were closed. The right wing had more open doors than the left wing so Harry went to the right. He was disappointed to find that most of the rooms that had open doors seemed to be used for sitting rooms. All were empty but lavishly decorated. In one, Harry found a glass that was holding a dark red liquid. That sight alone was enough to send him on to the next room.

At the end of the wing, Harry found a room without a door. He peeked inside and saw rows of bookcases. He had found the library clearly. He stepped inside the room, curious at what sort of titles he would find. Kit had mentioned he had published some works, but somehow Harry didn't think he would be able to find them in this library. After all, that was in the past and from what he had gained from his talk with Dmitry, the majority of the vampires within the coven wished to forget the past.

The books on the shelves seemed to be mainly classics in their original form. There was a row of shelves dedicated to poetry and the row next to it was dedicated to plays. Interestingly enough, none of the Shakespearean plays were there. The books upon the shelves were written in multitudes of languages. Many were in English, but there were similar amounts of books written in French, Chinese, Russian, Spanish, Greek, and Latin. Harry had to laugh when he found a section dedicated entirely to works about vampires. Whoever had contributed the books to the library certainly had a sense of humor.

Near the back of the library desks were pushed up against the wall. With the exception of two, the desks were completely empty. One of the used desks held an inkbottle that was neatly capped, many brushes that looked like they had been recently used and thick sheets of parchment. Some of the pieces of parchment had been crumpled up and were tossed carelessly to the back of the desk. The rest of the pieces of parchment were blank.

The second desk held the finished works, set out to dry. After four years of Hogwarts, Harry could tell that the ink on the parchment was still slightly damp. The ink itself formed intricate characters that Harry could only assume were Chinese. In some places the parchment looked wet and the ink blotchy, as if the writer had been crying.

Harry backed away from the desks, feeling as if he had found something private. In his haste to escape the suddenly stifling library, Harry missed the large painting that hung on the walls and how it was slightly off center.

In an attempt to get as far away from the library as possible, Harry crossed the entrance hall and entered the left wing. He passed what looked to be a dining hall and wondered if that had been the dining hall Yu had spoken of on the night he had arrived. It wasn't much of a hall as it was a large room that held a very long table with antique chairs surrounding it. Besides that and heavily draped windows, there was nothing else in the room.

"The conference room, also known as the dining hall." A quiet voice said from the doorway. Harry jumped slightly and turned to stare at Kaiulani, who had managed to sneak up on him. She offered an apologetic smile.

"My bad," She offered as an apology. "I forgot that you are only human."

Harry frowned at that comment and Kai shrugged. She wasn't going to apologize for any comments that happened to be true. The Hawaiian vampire stepped into the room and looked around.

"We don't really use this room a lot, with the exception of coven meetings that Yu occasionally feels the need to call. There is the occasional meal eaten in here but most prefer a…liquid diet."

"Less dishes to wash," Harry remarked dryly and Kai smiled slightly.

"The kitchen is across the hall." She waved her hand in the direction. "There is some human food in there if you're hungry but I don't know how old it is. We should probably go shopping soon."

"We being?" Harry inquired with a raised eyebrow. He couldn't see any of the vampires he met doing something as mundane as grocery shopping.

"You, Kit and I." Kaiulani responded. "I doubt any of the others will be willing to go. It would be more of a struggle for them since they haven't fed as recently as Kit and I have."

"Wasn't there blood being served at the party last night?" Harry remembered the glass he had spotted in one of the sitting rooms.

"Yes but those were laced with alcohol. That blood is used mainly for gatherings and parties. It doesn't really help with the appetite. It sometimes can even make it worse." Kai explained, twisting her fingers in a knot. She seemed slightly uncomfortable with the topic. Harry was still confused but decided to drop it.

"What are you doing up so early?" He asked in order to change the subject. It was obvious but it worked. He didn't even consider how odd the sentence must sound, considering it was in the afternoon.

Kaiulani's smile grew and she went over to one of the windows. Harry stiffened as she opened it, waiting for sunlight to pour in and burn her to a crisp. To his surprise, it was dark out, but just barely, like the sun had just gone down.

"The sun went down about thirty minutes ago." She informed the stiff teenager. "Besides, it won't actually turn us to ash. We just avoid it because it gives us a really bad sunburn."

So that was the unknown reason vampires didn't go out during the day. Harry relaxed slightly and gave a sheepish smile.

"I realize I don't really know much about vampires." He admitted. Kaiulani rolled her eyes.

"We like to keep it that way. According to Yu, if more people knew what went on in a vampire's life, they would just try to interfere and mess things up. She often references the World Wars as her example of humans messing things up."

The black-haired teenager had to laugh at that and the two fell into a comfortable silence. After a few minutes, Kaiulani broke out into small giggles. Harry gave her an odd look.

"Kit went to your room and noticed that you weren't there. He thinks Yu has something to do with it." She explained. "He's standing outside her room, debating whether or not he wants to wake her up."

"Is Yu not a morn…err…evening person?" Harry asked awkwardly.

"Something like that," Kaiulani replied in a wry tone, smile turning into a smirk. "She and Kit argue a lot. It's kind of cute, the way they flirt."

Harry wasn't sure how to respond to that. For some reason he couldn't see either of them flirting. It was disturbing to picture. Instead he brushed past Kaiulani and made his way to the entrance hall. At the top of the stairs, he could see Kit pacing back and forth outside one of the first doors.

"Kit?" He asked. His ancestor's head snapped around to look down the stairs and his face showed a mixture of relief, worry, and anger.

"There you are!" He exclaimed and quickly descended the stairs. It took him a total of two seconds to get from the top to where Harry and Kaiulani were standing. "Yu told me you were expelled. Is it true?"

Harry nodded. He still hadn't decided what he was going to do. If he demanded a hearing, then he would have to explain about the mansion and the coven and he was reluctant to do that as of the moment. However, if he remained at the mansion, it would mean not going back to Hogwarts, the one place he could call home.

"I don't know what I'm going to do yet." He informed Kit, answering the unspoken question. "I mean, I know I need the education but Yu mentioned something about the coven educating me?"

Kaiulani snorted at that and Kit gave a wry smile.

"If you choose that option, it'll certainly be a…unique education, to say the least." The male vampire commented. "Now what were you two doing?"

"Harry found the dining hall and I said that we should go shopping since I don't know how old the food is here." Kaiulani chipped in, giving Harry a meaningful look that Harry quickly understood. He nodded, silently saying that he wouldn't say anything about Kai's comments about the relationship between Yu and Kit.

Kit winced and gave a small sigh. At least it was only grocery shopping and not clothes shopping. He went over to a small table that was sitting next to the doorway and pulled open a drawer. Kaiulani opened a closet door and pulled out three jackets—hers, Kit's and a spare. She handed the spare to Harry as Kit found the set of keys he was looking for.

"Let's go!" She chirped and opened the door.


	9. Shopping Gone Wild

Once outside, Kaiulani held out her arm for Harry to grab. Hesitantly the boy gripped the vampire's arm and instantly felt like he was disapparating. The uncomfortable feeling ebbed soon enough though as Kai and Harry, quickly followed by Kit, arrived in the parking lot of what looked like a 24-hour grocery store. It didn't seem like many people were around but, given the time of night, Harry didn't expect anyone to be out and about, his present company excluded. They had just woken up.

Kaiulani took the lead and headed towards the store, grabbing a shopping cart as they walked in. She smiled at the few people who did pass by them and almost seemed to be humming to herself as they entered the store. Kit, on the other hand, was completely the opposite of the cheerful female vampire. He seemed to still be in a sour mood. Harry was just about to ask if something was wrong when Kai interrupted.

"So, where do you want to start, Harry?"

This question stumped Harry. He had never had to actually grocery shop before. At the Dursley's Aunt Petunia had always done that, taking Harry's pig of a cousin, Dudley, with her to choose all the food. All the young wizard really did was cook the food. Then at Hogwarts, the house elves had done all the cooking in the kitchen and placed the food on the magic tables. Harry had no idea what to choose.

"Um…"

"Let's start with some fruit." Kit sighed, clearly understanding the young wizard's hesitance to choose food. The vampire led the boy and his coven-mate to the fruit section and with nearly conspicuous inhuman speed gathered oranges, grapes, and apples. He placed them on the cart and said curtly, "Next?"

The boy gaped for a moment before blinking rapidly and forcing himself to move. Kit seemed to be forcing this to go faster, as if he didn't want to be out and about. Dismissing this, Harry made the next choice and naturally his body went toward the sandwich meat. It was one of the few things that were simple and yummy. He could easily put together a sandwich and be sustained until the next meal. Of course, that was probably partially due to the fact that the Dursley's underfed him; frequently.

Kit and Kaiulani followed behind Harry rather closely and he got the sense that Kit was feeling a bit paranoid. The vampire kept looking around anxiously as if someone was going to pop out and attack them from nowhere. Given Harry's past, however, that wasn't an unlikely possibility. Most of the young wizard's battles had been completely out of the blur. Nothing normal ever happened to the boy, if you even called being a wizard normal. After all, here he was shopping in a grocery store at night with a pair of centuries old vampires. It didn't get much stranger than that.

Harry grabbed some sliced turkey, ham, and bologna and plopped them into the cart before turning to try and find the bread. Wandering around silently for a bit, the boy found what he was looking for and then realized that he could've grabbed the cheese and mayo while he had been grabbing the meat. Sensing the urgency coming from Kit, Harry quickly backtracked, grabbed the condiments he wanted and continued onwards, picking up odds and ends as he went along. Not really knowing how to cook, Harry didn't grab much of anything that needed to really be prepared. He added peanut butter and jelly to his cart along with several bags of chips and other simple snacks. The only other thing that Harry could possibly think to buy would be either ingredients to make treacle tart or a pre-made one. As it was, the easiest was buying the ingredients since the boy didn't want to make his new housemates run all over the area looking for pre-made tart. That would have been rude.

It was then that the fifteen-year-old wizard noticed the intent whispers of his two companions as they walked a bit in front of him. Every once in a while Kit would shoot nervous glances back at Harry. The boy wondered if they were plotting something. Why else would they be keeping their voices down? If Harry had been a vampire his hearing would have been able to pick up what they were saying; as it was, he was not and therefore was curious and suspicious about what the two vampires in front of him were talking about.

"Do either of you know how to make treacle tart?" Harry asked quietly, hoping that they would pick up on his question and stop whispering in front of him. Honestly, they were right in front of him. Did they not think he would see them? Harry's growing frustration was interrupted when both Kai and Kit turned around. The Hawaiian vampire sadly shook her head but Kit seemed to perk up. It was the first time Harry had seen his ancestor not sulking all night.

"Treacle tart? Of course I do! It's my favo—or  _was_ —my favorite snack!" Kit laughed, immediately turning down an aisle. Various ingredients were tossed into the cart and Harry could only hope that they were going to be used to make treacle tart. It was interesting that Harry and Kit shared a favorite snack, even if the vampire hadn't been able to enjoy the snack for several hundred years. This new development made the young wizard forget about the previous whispering; that is until the trip back to the estate which ended up not at all how they had arrived.

After the groceries had been paid for, Kit and Kai started walking. They had arrived via apparating but they didn't seem to want to apparate back. How did they plan on getting back to Yu's estate? Harry assumed that it was quite a distance to travel while walking. The whispers started up again, though this time loud enough for Harry to hear bits a pieces.

"It's not going to take that long, you…" He heard Kai say to Kit with a rather annoyed voice.

"…should've waited until Harry…" Kit responded in kind. They both sounded snippy and Harry looked around him. The two vampires had led them to a sketchy part of town. Broken windows in buildings and beaten up "Closed!" signs were what Harry was seeing. Eventually Kai turned down an alleyway that was dark and abandoned. They came to a dead end, as seemed to be the case in every horror movie ever made, or at least the ones Harry had managed to glimpse while living on Privet Drive. There was a door. Sure it was mostly torn off of its' hinges, but it was a door all the same. Kai disappeared into it and Kit moved to follow. Not really sure of his role, Harry also moved to follow but his ancestor turned and said quietly and deadly serious,

"Not here, Harry. This is only a place for vampires." And with that was swallowed up by the dark shadows emanating from the doorway.

Immediately harry began hearing things that he normally wouldn't. His heart started beating a tad bit faster. One would think that, after everything the Boy-Who-Lived had lived through, he wouldn't be scared of waiting alone in the dark. But this was different. This was after learning about vampires. Yes, Voldemort was scary, but somehow vampires seemed a bit scarier to the fifteen-year-old. Then a thought crossed his mind: what if Voldemort found out about vampires, or already knew about them? That would make him even more invincible then he already was. The Dark Lord was intensely powerful and seemed unable to die. What horrors would await the world if Voldemort became immortal?

Harry began to wring at the grocery bags, his mind creating terrible pictures of what would happen to the world if Lord Voldemort became a vampire. The dark was messing with his mind as he heard a noise coming from the doorway. Carefully, trying not to make too much noise, Harry set down the grocery bags in his wand hand and pulled out his wand. Shakily he asked,

"Who's there?" Nothing happened for a moment. Then, Kit came out of the doorway carrying a cooler in one hand and carrying the handle of another, much larger cooler, in the other. Kaiulani was carrying the other end of the largest cooler and a smaller one like Kit's in her other arm. Harry, hand shaking, lowered and replaced his wand in the waistband of his jeans. It had been about twenty minutes since Kai and Kit had left Harry, though it felt like a lifetime to the boy. Swallowing a lump in his throat, Harry picked up the groceries and flashed the pair a weak smile.

"What do you have there?" He asked, trying to keep his voice light, as if he hadn't been terrified only moments before. Kit chuckled.

"Nothing deadly. Nothing that is going to try to kill you." Kit replied lightly, not answering Harry's question at all. As Harry was about to speak a sly chuckle came out from the shadows. Almost as if on cue, Kaiulani and Kit had the coolers safely on the ground and were surrounding Harry, as much as they could considering there were only two of them this time.

"Nothing in the coolers may want to try and kill the Boy-Who-Lived. But, I know for a fact that we do." The chuckling voice was cold and cruel. A lithe shape that seemed to embody the voice appeared suddenly. Dark colors, hard eyes, a cruel smile, and twitching fingers that were curved into claws, sharp and deadly, were the immediate features that Harry could pick out. Obviously this was a vampire. The boy had never seen anyone, or anything, save for vampires, move that fluidly and silently.

From behind the first vampire came two more. Even numbers perhaps, with three-on-three, but there was one problem: Harry wasn't a vampire. Nevertheless, the young wizard pulled out his wand. He figured that, now that he was expelled, he could cast spells all he wanted. There wasn't much else the Ministry could do, especially since Yu said that they couldn't find the estate. One of the new vampires laughed and spoke.

"Oh look, the little wizard is pulling out his little wand. What are you going to do with that thing? Huh?" The vampire sneered with a laugh.

"Immobulus!" Harry shouted, pointing his wand at the vampire that spoke. The vampire froze.

Harry hadn't really expected it to work but, was happy to see that it had. However, his action spurred the other attackers into action. They went for Harry, fangs barred. Kit took the first one who had announced their presence while Kai had the other vampire who happened to be several heads taller than her and significantly bulkier.

A grunt came from Kit as the lead attacker ran his clawed fingers down the side of Kit's face. Blood welled and started to drip but suddenly stopped. Harry was amazed that Kit was healing so fast but then remembered that he was a vampire. A slam came from the area that Kai had been fighting and Harry turned, half expecting to see the female vampire pinned to the ground. To his surprise, the Hawaiian princess had the other vampire in a headlock with a nearly malevolent look on her face. The wizard didn't have time to think about the look though, because the previously vampire was now bearing down on him. Apparently spells didn't work as well on vampires.

"Confringo!" Harry said, nearly not getting the spell out. It set the vampire on fire, burning his clothes and skin. A blood-curdling scream erupted from the pillar of flames and collapsed, writhing on the ground. Harry had found his defense against the vampires.

Hisses broke out from the now-dead vampires companions. The boy would have sent the charm at the two but considering they were still locked together with Kit and Kai, he didn't want to risk burning the people currently fighting to stay alive. Distracted, Kit wasn't ready for the leader to flip him and pin him. Kai barely kept her hold on the other attacker and looked to be losing ground. Harry didn't know what to do. He hadn't been in this kind of situation before. Harry pointed his wand once more and the vampire laughed, not expecting Harry to use an Unforgivable curse.

"Imperio!" Harry practically screamed. The vampire froze and slowly took his hands off of Kit and backed away. He was trying to fight it, and nearly was succeeding. Even so, everyone was looking at Harry strangely. Not paying them any mind, he forced the leader well away from Kit, though it was a lot of work to keep the curse up against the fighting vampire. He performed the same spell he had a moment ago to kill the other vampire on the leader, not bothering with feeling sorry that he had used an Unforgivable curse after promising to never do it.

Grunts came from where Kaiulani still struggled a bit with her attacker. Harry walked over and pointed his wand at the last vampire.

"Leave. Go back to whoever sent you and tell them that I won't be killed that easily. You try killing me again and I won't hesitate to kill you." Harry's voice was low and hard; biting He had never spoken to anyone that way. The Imperious Curse had given him confidence that he didn't normally have. The vampire looked at him and immediately broke free of Kai's loosening grasp to high-tail it out of the alleyway. Kai and Kit were staring at Harry making him very uncomfortable. Only a quiet  _'poof!'_  behind the Boy-Who-Lived drew their attention from him.

"Mr. Potter, we at the Ministry have been notified tha—" The wizard that had just apparated to them was dressed in fine, business-like robes, had square glasses and finely combed hair; the epitome of a Ministry lackey. However, one glance at the two vampires standing near Harry with ripped and bloody clothes sent the Ministry wizard squealing and disapparating before he could even get a full sentence out. A grin slithered its' way onto Harry's face. It had turned out to be an interesting night.

The boy turned back to Kit and Kai. They were still looking at him strangely. To break the tension that seemed to be building between the three of them, Harry cleared his throat and spoke.

"Well, why don't you two pick up your coolers of whatever and get us out of here. I'm sure Yu would want to know about this. What are in those bloody things anyway?"

"Blood. To feed us." Kit replied bluntly, slowly heading over to the coolers that had been lying forgotten. Kai wouldn't look at Harry and headed straight for the coolers. She wouldn't look at him even when Harry went to join the two by the coolers, his grocery bags, mildly tossed around, in hand . As soon as Harry's fingers brushed Kit's elbow, the boy felt himself being disapparated back to the estate after a rather surprisingly eventful night.


	10. Decision Made

Harry felt woozy when the trio landed back on the estate. He swayed slightly as Kit and Kai immediately moved up to the buildings many stairs. A shadow drifted at the top of the stairs. As it moved into the light, Harry could make out the features of Yu. She seemed to be worrying over something as she descended the stairs to meet Kaiulani and Kit in the middle. Whispers started up but the volume of their conversation slowly grew so that Harry could hear them.

"How dare you take him off the estate without telling me!" Yu seemed to be saying, though some of the words were still too quiet for Harry to hear. Kit's voice, on the other hand, was quite a bit louder and the young wizard could hear him perfectly.

"How dare I? He's my descendant. I have any right to take him where I please."

"Not if you are keeping him under my roof and he is staying with us for any period of time. You may be his ancestor and my second, but I still make the rules." Yu shot back, her voice becoming more audible, Harry understanding all of it this time. Kit looked livid.

"This is absurd! He isn't even sure that he will be staying!" Kit yelled. Other members of the coven were now starting to look out of various windows in the mansion. Dmitry was even watching the scene from the large doorway entrance to the mansion with a grin that surprised Harry.

"Well, if he isn't staying, then you can do whatever you will with him… _AFTER_  he leaves. Until then you will tell me when, where, and for how long you will be gone. And if I should decide that you are to inform me when he uses the loo, then you will inform me, no arguments. I will not have you putting him, yourself, or anyone else in this coven in danger by leaving and drawing attention to us. And since Harry seems to be targeted by Guy Fuchs, you will be attacked if you are followed. I have a responsibility to this coven, not just you and your ancestors." Yu yelled, though it seemed restrained, as if she really didn't want to be yelling or there was another reason for her anger. But the conversation or argument depending on how you looked at it was over as Yu swept up the stairs, not even glancing at Dmitry as she glided past him and disappeared into the mansion.

Kit stood frozen in his place as he stared at the spot that Yu had just vacated. Dmitry was still smiling as were the other vampires that had been watching the conversation happen, though they probably could undoubtedly hear the conversation with their super hearing.

Kai was then carrying both of the smaller coolers up the stairs that led to the mansion and both Dmitry and another vampire that Harry didn't know yet came to collect the other, much larger cooler. The boy suspected that just one of the vampires could have easily carried by themselves but didn't want to risk dropping their precious supply of blood. Kai came out again, cooler-less and called down to Harry,

"Harry, come on back inside. Yu will have a fit if you're outside alone and I'd rather like to keep my head attached to my body if you don't mind." Of course she knew that Kit was still out there, but he wasn't going to be much use for a while.

Sighing, Harry picked up his groceries and headed past Kit and up the stairs. Kai took them from Harry despite his protests. She led him into what Harry assumed was the kitchen area. There was a fridge and everything. Both Kai and Harry began putting away their purchases. They had just finished when Kit had walked in looking quite sullen.

"Harry, you must make a decision soon." Kit whispered. Harry could barely here what his ancestor was saying though he did end up catching it. Suddenly Harry was feeling very claustrophobic. He turned and left the room, Kit telling Kai to stay where she was. This was Harry's decision.

The boy wandered about the mansion until he found a particularly empty room. There were a few boxes and tools inside but it was otherwise completely devoid of any signs that people lived or spent time in it. Harry sat on a box for what felt like hours though in reality it was probably only 10 minutes at most.

There was a creak in the floorboards as someone else entered the room. Harry didn't move to look at first. He had assumed that Kaiulani would come after him, trying to comfort him. But it wasn't Kai's voice that spoke a moment later. It was a male's voice that the boy didn't recognize. The young wizard spun around on his box to look at the man or most likely vampire.

"Hello, I am Eugène Nielen Marais. You can just call me Eugène." The man said. He had a kind, almost poetic voice and darker skin. His eyes twinkled with something that Harry thought he recognized as amusement but what was funny about this situation. There was probably some sort of vampire joke going around about him. Just his luck; not only was he probably the laughing stock of the wizarding world but now the laughing stock of a vampire coven. Why did these things happen to him?

"Nice to meet you. I'm Har—"

"Harry Potter. I know."

"Of course you do." Harry mumbled, turning back around to face the wall opposite of the vampire. He wasn't in the mood to be meeting a new person at the moment, but apparently he had no choice. This Eugène wasn't going anywhere else. Maybe Harry had holed up in the vampire's lair so to speak.

"You seem rather down. Has Kit upset you? He tends to do that when he thinks he's helping." Eugène said with an understanding voice. The black-haired boy rolled his eyes and didn't reply. There was some shuffling behind him and one of the other boxes suddenly appeared beside him with Eugène sitting on it next to him.

"Don't be mad at Kit. It may be hard to believe, and some of the others still refute this but, he cares for you as his own son. It's been like this for as long as I've known the man. Since he never got to fully raise his own boys, he wants to be there for his descendants. I believe he also made contact with your father, James was it? Yes, I think it was the summer before his final year. He and his friend Sirius spent a few weeks with us when Kit saved them from some angry trolls who had wandered into Godric's Hollow." Eugène said, trying to placate Harry.

Harry didn't really pay attention to Eugène until the mention of his father and godfather. His father and godfather had met Kit and the coven? Why hadn't anyone told him that? The boy tried not to act interested in the hope that the vampire would go away but he felt that he should reply somehow.

"You're quite perceptive." Harry remarked, not really expecting an answer though he did receive one.

"Well, I was a lawyer once upon a time. That and a poet, naturalist, and writer," The vampire chuckled, "Time also has an uncanny way of making you notice things that humans and beings with a shorter lifespans don't."

Harry inwardly sighed. It seemed like the vampire wasn't going to leave. If he was going to stay here he might as well have an actual conversation with the man.

"What was my father like? And Sirius?" Harry asked, finally turning to the vampire sitting next to him. Strangely enough he felt very safe in this vampire's presence. Maybe it had something to do with the man being a lawyer, which was an oxymoron.

"James and Sirius had a lot of growing up to do when they came to us. Kit offered them the same thing he offered you. They stayed for a while, but chose to return to school. I believe they left here more men then when they arrived. I'm proud of them in a way. While we never contacted either of the boys again, we've kept an eye on them as best we could." Eugène's tone saddened a bit and Harry bet that he could guess that the vampire was regretting not being able to save James and Lily Potter, but he didn't comment.

Silence fell over the two for a moment. Harry was thinking about his father and Sirius and how they had had the same opportunity and he had. Did he want to follow their path, or his own? Finally, Harry had his decision made.

"Thank you, Sir. You've helped a great deal." Harry said, standing up. Eugène stood as well and Harry offered his hand which the vampire shook.

"I do not know why you are thanking me, but you are most welcome, my boy." The man said with a smile. As Harry left the room Eugène followed him to the doorway with a knowing smile on his face. He may not have been able to read minds, but he understood how the human mind worked. It was how he had survived as a lawyer.

* * *

 

Harry wandered the mansion looking for Kit. He hadn't found him in the kitchen where he had left him and the vampire wasn't in his room. Yu, if she was in her room, wasn't answering. The boy looked all over the mansion before finally deciding that he was going to risk Yu's anger to go outside to find Kit. If he found him, Harry wouldn't be alone. If he didn't, well then he would have to figure something out.

The young wizard finally found Kit where Harry had been attacked not long ago. The vampire looked tired, old, and pensive. Harry walked up to stand beside him.

"Kit, I've decided."

The vampire looked up, a guarded look on his face.

"And?"

"I'm staying."


	11. New Starts

The next few days were a blur. Kit was in an ecstatic mood and everybody knew it, even if they didn't know why. Yu wanted to keep it quiet for a few days, in case Harry was to change his mind while she was making arrangements to have a mortal staying with them. She'd mentioned needing to update the electricity and bathrooms that had running water for showers and the like but didn't really have up-to-date toilets.

The female vampire had also said she needed to find someone to consistently do the grocery shopping for Harry. This bothered Harry and he offered to go by himself, but the leader of the Coven was having none of it. A shouting match came out of it one night and Yu conceded to letting him go only as long as he took at least one, if not more, member of the coven with him.

Grumbling, Harry accepted this, knowing he had won in some form of the word. From the short amount of time Harry had known the Chinese woman, he had come to know how stubborn she was. Besides, it was her coven after all. Even if she wasn't bound and determined to protect him, she was going to protect her family, her coven; and part of that was protecting Harry. He actually quite admired her fierce loyalty to everyone she had gathered as one of her own. Not only that, there was no doubt that she could protect them. The power she emanated was a clear sign that she would be able to take care of the people she said she'd take care of.

The mansion seemed more alive with the news that Harry would be staying with them. Kit, of them all, seemed the most energized. It seemed he had been hiding his desire to have Harry stay with them far better than Harry had originally assumed. Harry had known Kit wanted him to stay, but the young wizard hadn't fathomed how much his ancestor wanted Harry to stay. However, now that the decision had been made in the direction that the English vampire wanted, he almost seemed to have a bounce in his step. For a vampire, that seemed odd, but Harry kind of liked it. Everyone seemed happier, or at least interested in the fact that Harry was staying.

It was nice to feel wanted. Lately he hadn't gotten that from his friends from Hogwarts. Any letters he had received from Ron, Hermione, Ginny, or anyone else were rather infrequent and had little to no useful information in them. Nothing on whether or not there were sightings of Voldemort, if the Ministry was still trying to deny the "rebirth" of Voldemort, and anything else revolving around Voldemort.

The Daily Prophet had been equally unhelpful with their denial of Voldemort's return and their propaganda campaign against Harry and Dumbledore. It was part of the reason he had decided to stay with Kit, Yu, and the coven. He felt as though his friends didn't want to be around him and no one believed him about Voldemort coming back and killing Cedric. He felt unappreciated, especially considering everything he had already gone through in his life.

So, now he was staying with the coven, had a room to himself, a mansion being converted to modern technology for him, and an escort (though probably unneeded) to the grocery store. Even though it was a lot of attention, it wasn't the normal attention he received. He felt wanted for himself, not simply admired or famous. These vampires were not in awe of him. In a way, they, too, had defeated death, just like him.

Since he'd been with the coven, he'd received a few letters from Ron and Hermione, but they'd been the same information-bare parchments that he'd been reading earlier in the summer. The most recent was about Hermione's trip with her parents. However, there was a lack of detail in it that Hermione normally would have put into her letters had she actually gone on a trip. The foliage would have been described in great detail and the sound of the birds or running water would have painted pictures in Harry's head. This letter was seriously lacking in the description department, at least based on past letters from the girl.

Harry tossed the letter to the floor with a huff, disrupting Hedwig in her cage, who looked slightly hopeful at the possibility of getting a job to deliver a letter. What was so important to hide from him that Hermione was lying about where she was? Why was she lying about being with her parents? At least Ron's letters didn't try to hide the lack of information. The redhead's letters were short, even for him. With no important news about Voldemort, the letters consisted of Quidditch scores and strategies that Harry could have read in a Quidditch magazine or in the Daily Prophet and other random dribble that Harry couldn't really care less about at the moment.

Hedwig hooted loudly and Harry glanced over at her almost guiltily. He felt bad, not giving her letters or packages to deliver, but he just didn't feel like his friends deserved an answer. Besides, by now people might be wondering where he was. He was sure word had gotten out about his expulsion, but the boy couldn't bring himself to care all that much. Another hoot from Hedwig brought Harry to stand up and walk over to her cage. At least here he could let her out of her cage whenever he wanted, unlike at the Dursley's where she was relegated to be caged most of the summer.

"I'm sorry, no letters today, Hedwig. I don't really have anything to say to them. They're leaving me in the dark on purpose." The wizard said as he opened the cage and Hedwig popped out to sit on his left shoulder. The snowy owl nibbled his ear affectionately, showing she wasn't angry with him. She just wanted to stretch her wings a bit.

The young wizard left his room with the snowy owl sitting on his shoulder, still affectionately nipping at his ear and hair. Instead of letting her out through his bedroom window, he would walk her to the door, giving himself the opportunity to step outside for even a moment. Yu had been very persuasive when she had told him he would not be leaving without an escort. But he knew how to bend the rules, without breaking them.

"What are you doing?" A surprisingly demure voice said behind him, startling him into taking his hand away from the door handle. Hedwig flapped her wings to steady herself on his shoulder after the sudden stop and turn on Harry's part.

He had turned to the owner of the voice, a tall and somewhat delicate Middle Eastern woman stood in the hallway to the right of the front door. A coy smile was on her face as she slowly made her way over to Harry. If not for the inhuman grace, Harry would've taken her for a human. Though she moved slowly, the vampire seemed to almost float and glide over the floor towards him. It was mesmerizing and Harry had to blink several times and shake his head to focus.

"I…was…uh, just letting Hedwig out to stretch her wings." Harry responded, uncertain if he was in trouble or not. The smile on the woman never wavered.

"Don't fret, Harry. You need not be worried about being disciplined. I was simply inquiring as to your owl and what you were doing. Owls are not a common sight here, unfortunately." The woman said, using his name, much to Harry's chagrin. Why must they all flaunt the fact that they knew him and he did not know any of them?

The woman had reached up to pet Hedwig and Harry tried to warn her, but it seemed there was no need. Hedwig warmed up to the woman immediately. That being the case, the messy-haired boy thawed toward the vampire a bit. Anyone Hedwig trusted Harry had to give a chance. His trusty owl had been with him since the beginning.

"I am Mahsati."

"Oh, uh, nice to meet you, Mahsati. Hedwig just likes to stretch her wings every once in a while, especially if I don't need her to deliver letters a lot." Harry replied with an explanation. He seemed a bit distracted as he was trying to figure out if he had at least seen this vampire before. With a face like hers, Harry was sure he wouldn't have forgotten it, so it seemed like he hadn't met her before. Curiosity got the best of him as he blurted out loud, "Are you not around the mansion often? I don't remember seeing you at all."

A chuckle was all he got at first. It took a moment for the woman to respond as it seemed like she was pondering her answer. "I am a member of the coven, but I have been away for the last several decades. It was time to visit my homeland. Yu requested my presence back, however. She had mentioned something about teaching a young, misplaced wizard while he was taking a holiday from Hogwarts." Harry nearly blushed with embarrassment at being the cause of Mahsati returning to the coven when she had been visiting her old home, until he saw the cheeky gleam in her brown eyes. He took a chance.

"Well he sounds like a regular git." A tinkle of laughter escaped the dainty lips of the vampire.

"I shall inform you of his personality once I have had a chance to get to know him."

"Don't be afraid to rough him up if he needs it." Harry continued to joke, earning another smile from the Middle Eastern vampire.

"I do not believe that will need to be arranged." Mahsati responded, suddenly moving towards the door and opening it and leading Harry and Hedwig outside. Hedwig took flight the moment that Harry set foot out of the doors of the mansion and was gone within moments. That left Harry alone with his new acquaintance. He looked sideways at the vampire who was still watching the owl fly off; though Harry had already lost sight of her, Mahsati's sight was better than his. Finally she seemed to lose Hedwig to the sky and turned back to Harry.

"It really is a pleasure to meet you, Harry. Kit is a dear friend." Harry half expected her to go on about how much Kit had worried about him and that it was good to see Kit so happy. But Mahsati surprised him. Again. "That being said, I do not agree with his choice to bring you here. Maybe for a couple of days, but you should be with your own people, Harry. Despite this, we will protect you and teach you the best we can."

Harry thought about protesting, saying that he had made the choice to stay, that Kit would have let him go back if that was what Harry had wanted, but Mahsati interrupted before he could even say anything.

"You need not say anything Harry. I know it is you that ultimately made the decision to stay, but Kit acted rashly, as he is sometimes prone to doing. It is not that we do not want you here, we are just not used to associating with wizards or non-vampires, excluding the humans we feed on." It wasn't really like she read his mind, just that she sort of knew the direction of her thoughts.

"How did you—" Harry began before he stopped. What did he say? How did she read his mind? How did she know what he was thinking?

"I did not read your mind, if that was your thought process. I have the ability to sense, in a manner of speaking, who people are. For instance, I know you are a curious boy who is fiercely loyal, which is why you wanted to jump to Kit's aid when I said he had acted rashly." At some point during this conversation, Mahsati had grabbed his arm, linked it with hers, and started them on a turn about the mansion. "I do not mean that to be cruel. That is who Kit is. His actions keep us on his toes and often it is in the defense of a member of the coven. That does not make the action any less rash. Do you understand?"

Harry nodded. From her tone of voice, Mahsati seemed to be very fond of Kit, like an older sister or cousin or something. It also seemed that she was a very levelheaded and sensible vampire, prone to look at facts, though she also seemed to be rather proper, complete with very good posture.

They were moving much more quickly around the mansion than Harry really noticed. It was more of a brisk, fast walk than any sort of stroll. Sometimes, or rather very often, Harry was reminded that vampires had seemingly forgotten the shortcomings of the human body and its frailness and weakness in comparison to vampire bodies.

They walked in silence as Harry could not think of anything else to say and it seemed that Mahsati was content with her piece already said. At least it didn't seem like she bore him any ill will. As they neared the main entrance to the mansion again, in a surprisingly short amount of time, Harry stopped and pulled his arm from Mahsati's.

"You said you were here to teach me. What will you be teaching me?" Harry asked, the curiosity that Mahsati had brought attention to rearing its head now that he had had a little time to catch up in his thought process. Mahsati stopped and slowly turned. Apprehension filled the boy as he saw an unexpected mischievous grin on the woman's face.

"Oh. I will be teaching you etiquette, young Mr. Potter. And from your example, it looks like you will need my instruction more than I thought. But never to worry, I have turned out many polite young men." Her tone of voice left Harry to wonder how she had managed to turn out the polite young men. He also wondered how much he really needed these lessons and if Yu was in her right mind to assign Mahsati to teach it.

"Now, come along, Harry." Mahsati said, now continuing towards the door. "I'm sure Kit is wondering where you are, especially if he's heard I have returned. I don't think he wanted us to meet after what happened with your father and Godfather." The woman seemed to glide up the stairs, leaving a gaping Harry behind. He gained his senses once again as she went through the doors and hurried after her.

"Wait! What happened when my dad and Sirius were here? Mahsati? HEY!" The doors closed behind him as he walked into the mansion and he heard a ping of laughter from up the stairs. Mahsati wasn't going to answer him, but she was going to mess with him. Despite himself, Harry found himself grinning. Anyone could say what they would about Yu, but she had certainly found an amusing and curious group of vampires to call her family, and he wasn't exactly mad about that. If anything, he was happy. These vampires would certainly keep him on his toes.

Harry found himself whistling as he made his way to the kitchen, deciding to try and look up everyone he had met online, or even in history books, to see who they had been once upon a time, a long time ago. Hermione would love this opportunity to learn new things about historical figures. He wished he could tell her, but even thinking about her at the moment brought his temper up a couple of degrees. Best not to think about her for the moment. Instead, he was thinking about the wonderful smell coming from the kitchen. Stomach rumbling, Harry walked into the kitchen to see Kaiulani looking at the flames from the stove with a creased brow. When the doors clambered shut she turned to look at him, smile ironing out the frown.

"Oh, hello, Harry. Just trying out my hand at cooking again!" Her smile made him nervous. What in the name of Merlin's beard was she cooking up?


	12. Starting Lessons

Dinner was… risky, for a lack of better words. The food was just barely edible and brought back memories of Sir Nicholas' Death Day party Harry had attended back in his second year.

Harry was never trusting his sense of smell again, especially if it involved a vampire in the kitchen that hadn't cooked for decades. Though he was thankful that there was a somewhat modern stove in the coven's manor and that someone was willing to try using it. A couple of vampires had poked their heads in the kitchen and were stunned to find out that they even had such an appliance.

"Next time we go shopping, remind me to point out the canned soups and ready-made meals," Harry muttered to Kit, who was watching his descendant attempt to eat a plate of pasta that was a combination of uncooked and burnt ingredients. "And frozen dinners. Those are pretty much impossible to cook wrong."

"You're willing to eat prepackaged meals? Over homemade cooking?" Harry jumped as Kai appeared and inwardly cursed at himself, having forgotten about the vampires' enhanced hearing.

"Your meals are all prepackaged," Harry retorted. "In that regard, I may as well try to fit in."

"You aren't the kind of person who should bother with the idea of fitting in. You'll never be able to succeed if that's your goal."

"I'm taking that as a compliment," Harry informed the woman, who merely shrugged in return. Kit rolled his eyes and shook his head.

Harry poked at his food one more time before pushing the plate away. "I'm done," he announced.

Kit glanced at the half-eaten food and chuckled. "You've eaten far more than anyone else ever has," he said as he waved his hand and the dishes disappeared. Harry's eyes widened at the wandless bit of magic.

"Can everyone do that?" he asked. Kit frowned, trying to understand what Harry was referring to but he didn't catch on until Harry gestured at the lack of dishes on the table.

"Not really," Kit explained. "Others who were muggles before they were turned will always be unable to do such things and those who had magic before…well, they'd need to put in decades of study and even then, you have to have a knack for magic to pull it off."

"A knack for magic?" Harry raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms. "Don't all wizards and witches have a 'knack' for magic?"

Kit rolled his eyes. "Of course not," he said. "It's similar to the ways some people are artistically inclined or why some people are gifted in the ability to understand mathematics and discover new ideas and equations. Don't tell me you haven't noticed that it takes some of your classmates longer to learn spells and magical theory than others."

"But I thought it was because we've had horrible teachers like Lockhart and Snape," Harry argued. "If you have a poor teacher, of course it's harder to pick up on things."

"I don't know those names and I'm not saying horrible teachers aren't part of the reason, but there's only so much you can learn without having an inclination for the subject matter."

"You haven't heard of Lockhart? Gilderoy Lockhart?" Harry asked, switching the subject. "I thought you would have."

"Why?" Kit asked with a frown.

"Does the book Voyages with Vampires ring a bell?" Harry questioned.

"No," his ancestor said at the same time Kai said, "Yes."

Kit glanced at Kai, who shrugged.

"It was supposed to be fact-based but it was more comedic than anything else," she said. "It was obvious that it was a planned effort to misinform the public about us. Dracula was more accurate than that book was."

Both Harry and Kit chuckled at that.

"So are any books about vampires accurate?" Harry asked. "Now that I know that some of them purposefully aren't?"

"There's a few but it's beneficial to our survival to make sure that there's contradicting information out there among the wizards and witches that hunt us."

"And the occasional muggle that fancies his or herself to be a vampire slayer," Kai interjected.

"Many vampires choose to seclude themselves from the rest of the population, only associating with other vampires," Kit explained. "When we have such limited social circles, it's hard for humans to make contacts in our society. Those that manage that tend to keep us at a distance instead of choosing to live among us, which would be the best way to get completely accurate information."

"Which makes you a bit of an anomaly," Kai informed Harry. "Like I said, you will never be successful at fitting in." Harry opened his mouth to argue or shout but Kai continued talking before he could even get a word out. "It's been working in your favor though, I suppose. If you weren't such an anomaly, I doubt Yu would have had so many coven members accept her offer to tutor you."

"So many?" Harry asked. "How many tutors am I going to have?"

"You've met most of them, I believe," Kit said as Kai got to her feet and slipped out of the room. "Eugène and Dmitry and Mahsati. You already know Kai and Yu and I. I believe there's only two more offers pending."

"Eight? That seems excessive."

"Each of us have specialties," Kit explained. "Just like your professors at Hogwarts, though you'll only be learning magic in your lessons with me. Most of the others were muggles before they were turned but that doesn't mean you can't learn from them."

"What am I going to be supposedly learning?" Harry questioned. "Because if it involves subjects such as maths and the sciences, you would be better off bringing in a primary school teacher, not a specialist. I haven't touched any of those subjects since I was eleven."

"You'll manage," Kit said with such confidence in his voice that Harry didn't have the heart to tell his ancestor that he had been (and still was at times) at a terrible student. "Just…be prepared for some interesting teaching styles."

"Like what?"

* * *

The air in the train compartment was filled with tension and unspoken worry. Four Gryffindors sat in silence, no one wanting to be the first to bring up the subject that was all bothering them and the cause for their somber mood.

A second year sprinted down the thin corridor, his heavy feet causing the compartment doors to rattle as he ran past. The sudden sound caused the majority of the compartment's inhabitants to flinch.

"We're overthinking things," Ron muttered before the silence could continue. "It's not the first time Harry's missed the train."

"I highly doubt another house-elf barricaded the gate to the platform," Hermione sniped. "And just missing the train doesn't account for where he's been the past few weeks. Dumbledore himself went to his relatives' house and wasn't able to find anything. Who knows what's happened since he disappeared."

"We would've known if something happened. It would have been all over the news," Ginny stated slowly. Neville, who was sitting silently beside her, nodded his agreement.

"Something did happen," Hermione reminded the group. "The Ministry sent him an expelled notice for using magic while underaged to an unplottable, overseas location. Your dad spotted it in the Ministry's Notice Registry. I don't understand why no one else has spotted it yet."

"Because no one besides Dad ever reads that thing," Ginny snorted. "Hundreds of automatic notifications are owled out every day and very few people will read something as boring as the Notice Registry. Besides, just because there was an automatic notice sent doesn't mean anything actually happened to him."

"And the unplottable overseas location that the Registry said it was sent to?" Hermione demanded.

"There's lots of ways to fake the location of where magic was used," Ginny said. "And the locations aren't the most accurate to begin with. If someone was on a boat on the ocean only a couple kilometers from the shore, the location would be unplottable overseas."

"But that notice still means that Harry used magic somewhere. Why would he? He was so paranoid that he would be expelled for that situation with his uncle's sister and that was accidental magic. He already received an expelled notice, though thankfully it was overturned. He wouldn't risk it again, so he wouldn't use magic unless it was a matter of life or death."

"We don't even know for sure that he was the one that actually used magic," Ginny pointed out. "Just that his wand did."

Ron sighed. "Stop trying to make excuses, Gin," he said. "I know you're trying to be optimistic but right now it sounds like you're grasping at straws. We all know that Harry was a tendency to find himself in unimaginable situations and with him, it's always best to consider the worst-case scenario."

Ginny glared at her brother. "The worst-case scenario is that Voldemort got his hands on Harry and if that happened, we all know he would've killed Harry and then shouted his victory from the rooftops all over the country. That hasn't happened, so for all we know Harry's fine and will meet us at Hogwarts."

"And what if he doesn't?" Hermione demanded.

"Mass panic," Neville said with a grim look on his face. "Dumbledore won't be able to keep his absence hidden and once the Daily Prophet finds out, it'll be all over the papers. There's been rumors recently about Harry being the Chosen One or the only one able to stop Voldemort, and if he's gone, most wizards and witches would lose hope."

Everyone in the compartment grimaced at the dark picture that was painted, but after a minute Neville sighed.

"Harry's fine," he said, forcing some confidence into his voice. "He'll show up eventually."

"How are you so sure?" Ron asked, his voice skeptic.

"Because he's Harry," Neville replied. "And because he wouldn't ever abandon his friends."

Somehow, that was the most comforting thought the group had had ever since they had found out that their friend was missing.

* * *

Harry hobbled into his bedroom, wincing at the strain that even taking tiny steps put on his muscles.

"Be prepared for some interesting teaching styles," he muttered under his breath. "I don't think what I just went through could be considered a lesson."

The teenage wizard had just met one of his newest tutors, one who specialized in defense and combat.

It had sounded interesting, especially because Harry's best subject had always been Defense Against the Dark Arts, but now he just felt like he had gone a few rounds with Dudley.

"I know that look," an amused voice came from the doorway. Harry turned his head and sighed when he spotted Kai.

"Do you?" he asked drily.

"I think everyone here has worn that expression more than a few times," the female vampire replied as she stepped inside the bedroom. "Even myself."

"Even Yu and Kit?" Harry asked, raising an eyebrow. Kai grimaced.

"Kit, yes. Of course he has. Though Yu…" she trailed off before sighing. "We never really know. She's older than the rest of us and that comes with certain advantages, including centuries of practice at wearing masks. Of course, I believe that she's felt the same way all of us have at one point or another, even if she likes to pretend that she hasn't."

"Why?" Harry asked. "What's the point?"

"I think only Kit has figured out the answer to that. He knows Yu the best out of all of us. You should try asking him at some point."

"He knows Yu the best," Harry mused, Kai's response reminding him of questions he had yet to ask. "Kai, is there anything between the two of them?"

Kai glanced at the wizard. "What do you mean by anything?" she questioned. "Like a door? Or a table?"

Harry stared at the female vampire for a couple of heartbeats, trying to decide if she was joking or not. "Do they have any romantic feelings for each other?" he clarified.

A flurry of emotions flashed through Kai's eyes, half of which Harry couldn't recognize. The few he could were all over the spectrum-amusement, pain, curiosity, guilt.

"A complicated question," Kai murmured. "Do you want the party line that those two give the coven and what we give the rest of the world? Or do you want to know what's discussed in the mornings and afternoons when us among the coven are unable to sleep?"

"Whichever one is the truth," Harry said in a flat tone as his muscles throbbed, reminding him of his lessons earlier.

"That I can't give you," Kai replied. "Mostly because I don't know what the truth is to answer your question. The only two capable of giving you the truth probably aren't even sure what it is after decades, even centuries, of denial and the refusal to consider anything that might upset the status quo. Vampires don't like change normally."

"Normally?" Harry raised an eyebrow at that. "Does that mean my presence here is an exception?"

Kai laughed as she turned away from the doorway. "Definitely," she assured the wizard.

* * *

Albus Dumbledore hid a frown behind his goblet, pretending to drink as his eyes scanned the Great Hall, looking for a face he already knew he wouldn't find.

It had been his final hope that Harry would show up at Hogwarts on September 1st, either on the train or in some other fashion like he had done his second year but it hadn't happened.

Where was Harry? It wasn't the first time the boy had gone missing during the summer but he had always shown up at Hogwarts, the one place he declared his home.

As Albus set down his goblet, he glanced over at Minerva and caught her eye. When he gave a nearly nonexistent nod, the deputy headmistress frowned, knowing that was her cue to slip away to call the Order for an urgent meeting. Since Harry hadn't shown up, they had no other choice but to send out search parties for the teenager.

Albus glanced to his other side and blue eyes met black. After a few heartbeats, Severus sneered and tore his gaze away from the headmaster's. The welcome feast wasn't over and already he had been given a difficult, possibly impossible task-find Harry Potter and deliver him to Hogwarts without raising the Dark Lord's suspicion.

Damn Potter to the ends of the world and back. Why couldn't the boy do what he was supposed to do for once?


	13. September Second

"This way," a feminine voice called out to the three hunched shapes behind her. They followed the woman down the alleyway before she suddenly stopped. "The path leads us here and then vanishes," she continued, confusion in her voice.

"Are you absolutely positive about that, Hestia?" a voice growled from the back of the pack. Hestia looked back at the speaker with a look of clear annoyance. Her wand was lit, spilling light over her companions as they lowered the cowls of their capes.

"Of course, I'm sure, Mad-Eye. You either trust me or you don't, and you're the one that chose me for the tracking spells." Hestia replied, visibly trying to reign in her annoyance. It wouldn't help at this point. They were all tired after being dragged from their beds on a sudden mission from the Order and they had been out for hours in the middle of the night, trying to find out what had happened to Harry Potter after receiving owls from Minerva when the boy hadn't showed up to the Welcome Feast and there hadn't been any contact from him in weeks. And the thought on all of their minds was: " _Couldn't Harry Potter stay out of trouble for one summer?"_  But still, here they were.

"That boy just cannot stay still, can he?" a new voice added.

"Kingsley, you knew James. Harry seems to be very similar to him."

"You may be right, Tonks." Kingsley chuckled as he started to cast about the alleyway with his own lit wand. "We might as well look around and see what we can find." The others followed the man's actions and took separate sections of the alleyway.

After several minutes of silence, Tonks spoke up. "I think I found something." The woman, sporting lime green hair this week, was examining the wall at about shoulder height and the others crowded around her curiously. "I think…it's a couple spots of blood."

"That could be from anything or anyone. This is a dark alleyway and the streets are littered with murders and such in the muggle world." Hestia pointed out. Mad-Eye pushed his way to the front to get a closer look at the specks, his magical eye spinning wildly.

"What do you think, Alastor?" Kingsley asked.

"This area is protected from the rain from above, so it is possible that it could have been here weeks ago. However, there certainly isn't enough to suggest he was hurt badly or dead or even if that's his blood." Moody grunted in response.

"Maybe he found someone in trouble and tried to save them? It could be their blood. Harry, from what I've heard, seems to have a pretty strong protective streak and a knack for finding trouble because he wanted to help someone." Tonks suggested, earning nods from the others.

"It's likely. It still remains, however, where did he go from here? My spell ends here. That means he's either dead or apparated somewhere. But he's still a year or more away from even beginning to learn apparation. He couldn't have done it himself." Hestia pointed out.

"He must have run into another wizard either hurting a muggle or one that he trusted and he went off with them or was taken." Tonks mused as she began to pace. "Has anyone talked to Sirius yet? Harry would trust him and go with him somewhere."

"Sirius is one of the ones that has been so worried about the lack of communication. Despite the fact that he hasn't been able to say anything of true interest to his godson, the two have been in contact all summer until a few weeks ago when all communication ceased," Moody said.

"Perhaps he knows something and doesn't realize it. It wouldn't hurt to go speak with him on the matter." The group nodded and prepared to leave, their hoods going back up before apparating to the only place they knew Sirius Black would be.

* * *

An angry voice came from inside of number 12 Grimmauld Place, the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix, though the muggles outside and on either side of the House of Black couldn't hear anything. Only the wizards and witches inside the house could hear the anger coming from Sirius Black.

"How could you think I would hide him? And why do you think I could convince him to leave the fight? He, more than anyone, wants and deserves to fight in this war." Sirius fumed at his accusers. They weren't exactly accusing him of anything, though their questions weren't really innocent either. Mad-Eye Moody's questions, in particular, sounded a bit on the untrusting side.

"Sirius, he's your godson. We know you've grown close and Harry wanted to run away with you after his third year. With everything that happened last year, we wouldn't put it past him to convince you to take him someplace away from everything." Hestia Jones reasoned, trying to calm Sirius down before he woke his mother's sleeping portrait.

"But I also know how much danger he's in," Sirius protested, though the decibel of his voice lowered and some of the anger began to fade away. "I know how much the Dark Lord wants to find him and kill him. Why would I keep him away from Hogwarts or from the Dursleys or from here even?"

His questions were never answered as Molly Weasley swept into the kitchen in a whirlwind of action.

"Morning," the Weasley matriarch greeted the other Order members as she set some knives to chopping vegetables. A couple of frying pans flew to the stove with a wave of her wand. "You all must be hungry after being out all night." The statement caught the group off guard for a moment before they realized that it must indeed be morning. The owls they had received hadn't arrived until after 11 pm and it had taken them some time to get together before they headed to Harry's relative's residence and questioned them. After learning that he had run away, they'd spent some time looking for clues around the area in which Harry had lived, hoping that he had perhaps just made a very secure hideout somewhere. Nothing had been found and they had resorted to the tracking spell before arriving at headquarters sometime near dawn.

Molly smiled as the realization sunk in and a few stomachs began to grumble with hunger. "You just sit down and make yourselves comfortable. You can put your heads together and try to come up with something over breakfast. Arthur should be down shortly and Dedalus Diggle had said he might pop by this morning. I'm sure we can figure something out to find Harry."

Mad-Eye growled audibly but nonetheless sat down with everyone. Sirius was looking rather dejected as he sat down and Kingsley spoke to him. "Cheer up, Sirius. I am sure we will find him before any real harm comes to him."

"I'm supposed to protect him. That's what I promised James and Lily I would do when I agreed to be his godfather, and then I got myself locked away in Azkaban and then lost the only proof of my innocence. And now Harry is missing." He slammed a fist down on the table. "I feel so god-damned useless!" he exclaimed.

"We all do at one time or another, Sirius," a new voice chimed in from the doorway. Everyone looked over to see Arthur Weasley standing there with a small, grim smile on his face.

"Ah, Arthur, come have a spot of breakfast before you have to pop over to the Ministry," Molly said as she started putting a platter of scrambled eggs with various vegetables and sausage in them. This was followed by toast and marmalade and a pitcher of milk. The plates marched themselves down the table to land in front of a person. Then came the silverware, all mismatched.

"Going in so early, Arthur?" Tonks asked as she waited her turn for food.

"Yes, someone decided it was a good idea to try and charm something called a washing machine to wash vegetables. Now he has a machine that is creating a mini typhoon that shoots vegetables at anyone walking by."

Everyone stared at the explanation, mostly due to the fact that everyone there, with the exception of Arthur, didn't understand why wizards and witches bothered trying to do anything with muggle contraptions. The majority of the time it didn't work and they ended up with an experiment that went haywire. They also didn't understand the man's fascination with muggles and everything they did.

"Good luck with that," Hestia commented skeptically as she loaded her plate with food.

"Barmy," Moody muttered under his breath.

The kitchen was generally silent as everyone ate. Sirius mostly just picked at his food, but he did manage to eat a little something before it was all gone. Molly frowned at him from across the table. He hadn't gained back all of the weight he'd lost while imprisoned and he still looked more gaunt than she was comfortable with. He reminded her a lot of what Harry had looked like the first time she'd met him, as well as each time she'd seen him after a summer with the Dursleys.

"I best get going. Don't want a unsuspecting muggle to lose an eye to a carrot," Arthur said far too cheerfully. A few of the group rolled their eyes, including Molly, though the woman also wore a fond smile on her face. As he made to leave the kitchen he paused as if he'd just remembered something and then turned. "I'd try looking for Harry in Switzerland. I looked further into the Registry and that was the rough area of where the unplottable location was, judging by the country codes."

"And how accurate are those?" Moody asked grumpily, thinking that they could have saved a lot of time the previous evening if they'd known that.

Arthur shrugged. "I wouldn't know but it's a starting point. He might not still be there but at least it's a trail. Good hunting." The red-haired man hurried out of the kitchen and Molly sighed as she realized that her husband left his briefcase behind. Again.

The whole group stared after him. It was when Sirius stood and hurried for the door to the kitchen to follow after Arthur that everyone else spurred themselves into motion.

"And where do you think you're going?" Tonks asked, side-stepping in front of the man before he could leave.

"You heard Arthur; Switzerland is too big for four of you to search. I'm going to come help you," Sirius said as if it should be obvious to everyone and tried to push his way past the woman.

Tonks was having none of it and pushed back. "It's too dangerous!" she insisted as Sirius tried again. "You know Remus wouldn't agree with this decision." Before Sirius could protest, Moody spoke up.

"Let 'im go, Nymphadora." The lime green hair the woman sported suddenly turned into a flame red and everyone knew why, though she didn't get a chance to protest the use of her first name. "No one will be looking for him in Switzerland. We can do some minimal transfiguration to disguise him and if there is any trouble Sirius can transfigure into his Animagus form." Everyone looked at Moody with blatant surprise on their faces, as he had always been one of the strongest supporters of keeping Sirius as hidden as possible.

"Moody, are you su-"

"Of course, I'm sure, Molly. Sirius is right. We don't have the numbers to search all of Switzerland and we can't quit our jobs. That will just make it all look suspicious. In fact, Kingsley, you better get out of here. The Minister will likely be whining for you." Moody sneered at the mention of the Minister of Magic. The tall man nodded and started to leave, Sirius letting him pass, equally as flabbergasted that Moody was on his side this time.

"So…I can go?" Sirius asked, still unbelieving.

"How many times do I have to say it?" Moody snapped. "You and I can get started now while the rest of you get some sleep or get to your jobs, whichever you prefer. We can brief the next searchers when we meet up. And if someone does happen to recognize you, however unlikely, you can turn into Padfoot. Even fewer people know that form abroad than here." The small group nodded and one by one they started heading out the door. Sirius stayed where he was as Moody began to transfigure the younger man, lightening his hair to a dirty blond. His eyes were changed to look a bright green along with a darkening of his skin so it didn't have the normal pallor it had sported for the last 13 years. Finally, Moody deemed Sirius to look different enough to leave the house, though they still used Moody's invisibility cloak when they left and apparated to Switzerland.

* * *

"I told you something was up." Hermione whispered furiously at Ginny and Ron as they sat in the thinning common room. Harry hadn't been at the Welcome Feast, nor had he appeared when they'd headed up to Gryffindor tower. The small group, also including Neville, had since spent their evening turning at every sound coming from the entrance of the tower in the hopes that Harry was still going to show up. It was now very late and even the most notorious night owls were making their way to bed.

"What d'you suppose happened?" Ron asked, appearing much calmer than Hermione for once.

"A million things could have happened, Ronald. Most of them bad. What if You-Know-Who has him and is torturing him right now?" Hermione surmised, getting up to pace in front of the fireplace.

"Oh, come on, Hermione. If he had Harry, he would kill him straight off, which is a good thing." Ginny interjected.

"How on earth is that a good thing?" Hermione exclaimed.

"Hermione, use your brain." Ginny responded patiently, rolling her eyes. "As I said on the train, if You-Know-Who had killed Harry, we would know by now. He would have announced it and his new regime weeks ago and Ron, Neville, and I might not be in school, and you certainly wouldn't be."

At this, Ron stood as if to defend Hermione. The bushy haired girl sighed. "Ron, stop it. Ginny  _is_  right. I'm just letting my fears get the better of me. And, I'm muggle-born. I would have no place in…Vol-Voldemort's regime." A collective gasp came from the small group while a disbelieving snort came from outside of the group. The only other two people now left in the common room were Seamus and Dean. Dean looked decidedly uncomfortable and hung back a bit when Seamus moved forward.

"What a load of rubbish. Harry probably decided he was tired of lying and defending his lies to everyone. He was probably too embarrassed to come back," Seamus said with a sneer.

"You take that back, you slimy git," Ron roared. He was held back by Neville as he lunged for his year-mate.

"Of course you would believe him. But there's no real proof," Seamus spat back. "And because of him and Dumbledore, my mum almost didn't want me to come back. Didn't want me learning under a crackpot like Dumbledore and alongside a crazy delinquent like Harry."

"You believe everything your mum says, hm? Little mummy's boy? Where did she hear all this? Your stupid mum listening to all the crap that's being printed in the Daily Prophet?" Ron shouted and lunged again. This time Ginny stood to help Neville hold her brother back.

"Ron, it's not worth it. We know Harry is telling the truth," Ginny said quietly.

"Don't you dare call my mum stupid, Weasley!" Seamus took a few more steps forward, drawing out his wand as he did so. Dean stepped in to hold the other boy back, grabbing his wand arm.

"Seamus, come on, let's go," Dean urged.

"You don't believe the rubbish they're spewing, do you, Dean?" Seamus demanded in an accusing tone.

"I don't know what I believe. But it's late and we're all tired and should probably go to bed." Dean urged Seamus away from the group and towards the stairs.

"Fine. But I want  _him_  to stay away from me," Seamus agreed as he nodded his head towards Ron.

Ginny and Neville didn't let Ron go until the other two disappeared up the stairs, then all four of them sat in a slouch. They were all silent for some minutes before Ginny finally let out a yawn.

"I don't think Harry will be here tonight. We might as well go to bed now. Classes will be rough in the morning as it is," Ginny stated and looked around them all. They all nodded and Ron grumbled all the way up the stairs. Ginny grabbed Ron's shirt before he could follow Neville all the way up to the boys dorm. "Dumbledore will have the whole Order mobilized, now that Harry didn't show up here. I'm sure they'll find him in no time," she whispered to both of them. "Goodnight." Hermione nodded and waved to Ron as she followed Ginny into the girls dorm and Ron went upstairs, all of them worrying about their friend.

* * *

Harry looked out his window at the mansion longingly. He knew that right about now his friends would be in the common room of Gryffindor Tower, stuffed after the Welcome Feast. He knew they were going to be worried and thinking up the worst fates that could have befallen him when he hadn't shown up at Hogwarts. Part of him really regretted not going back to Hogwarts. It had been the first place he had truly felt at home.

He also regretted that he couldn't really communicate with Sirius. The man was probably worried sick about him. They had barely seen each other in the time since they had met at the end of Harry's third year, but they still had started to develop a close bond.

The more he thought about it, the more he began to wonder if he was going to ultimately regret choosing to stay with Kit. Finally, he had to step away from the window and think about something else. He was sitting on his bed when Kai found him.

"You know, Dmitry isn't that fond of being kept waiting," the vampiress said from his bedroom door.

"Huh?"

"Your math instructor. You met him. Dmitry? He's not one that likes to be kept waiting and you're about 5 minutes late," Kai replied with a chuckle.

"Oh, bloody hell," Harry muttered under his breath. "Math wasn't one of my strengths when I was studying it in primary school. I hope he likes to be frustrated."

"Don't worry. He may not like to be kept waiting, but he has a decent amount of patience and is pretty good at teaching. You will be fine." Kai patted his head as Harry walked by her. "Off you go!"

Harry nodded and hurried off down the corridor and Kai watched him. Her eyebrows furrowed in both thought and concentration as she watched the boy go. She was growing rather fond of the boy and she was certain he was thinking about Hogwarts and his friends. Anyone would be at this time. She understood the draw, but she would be sad if he left. And Kit would be devastated. It would be a repeat of when Sirius and James had been here and then left, only worse. Harry had elected to stay. If he suddenly changed his mind, Kit would probably lock himself away in depression. And Yu...everything would go downhill again.

Kai sighed. As much as she had grown fond of Harry, part of her wished Kit had never run into the boy and brought him here. It would have made their lives much less complicated.


End file.
